


Promises

by CRenatta234



Category: NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band), WayV (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst and Tragedy, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Blood and Violence, Brotherhood, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten is a Little Shit, Dark, Dystopia, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Heavy Angst, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kinda, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Mark Lee Are Best Friends, Lee Taeyong-centric, Mark Lee (NCT)-centric, MarkYong best duo, MarkYong enthusiast, Military, Military NCT, Mother Hen Qian Kun, Not Beta Read, OT21 (NCT), Platonic Relationships, Read the warning, Reincarnation, Sad, Stressed Lee Taeyong, Superpowers, You Have Been Warned, lot of swearing, the world is fighting each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25386178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CRenatta234/pseuds/CRenatta234
Summary: [ON HIATUS]Mark lives a dangerous life, with dangerous job, in a dangerous world. The world has been thrown into chaos and Mark took whatever chances he gets to survive in the unforgiving world. Sure, he has the least ideal life but nothing is ideal when the world is fighting each other. Mark also has his friends, he has his teammates. He has Taeyong by his side.He's happy.Or so he thought.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun & Lee Taeyong, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Lee Taeyong, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Mark Lee, Lee Taeyong & Everyone, Lee Taeyong & Nakamoto Yuta, Lee Taeyong & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Mark Lee & Lee Taeyong
Comments: 79
Kudos: 131





	1. Chapter 01 - Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Hellooooo!! I'm backk!! I'm back with a brand new story, freshly written. I did canon compliant before, so now I'm challenging myself with different genre 👀 hope I didn't butchered it lmao. I hope you like this story 💚
> 
> (shameless self-promotion) oh and if you didn't read my previous works yet, do feel free to check them out 👉🏻👈🏻

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Tell me why I brought these guys again?”
> 
> “I don’t know, man. Upper’s order?”
> 
> “Damn right, upper’s order.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically the introduction of our lovely boys <3

_“The enemy’s here. We have to go.”_

_“I really dislike the idea of leaving all these precious data behind.”_

_“We have no choice. This is the perfect bait. We’ll get them back, he promised.”_

_“and we’re trusting his promise so much it baffles me to no end. Does he really think doing this will accomplish our goals?”_

_“Let’s trust him. He said that ‘they’ have what we need and this is the only way to prove him right.”_

_“And the only reason I trusted him because I do know ‘they’ have quite a bunch of interesting subjects.”_

_“Right, now let’s get the fuck out of here. They’re getting closer now.”_

* * *

_“Alpha to Chameleon. Report Status.”_

Two figures were seen sneaking up a dark hallway, cloaked by the shadows. They moved swiftly, _silently_ , throughout the length of the corridor, like a deadly viper snaking underneath a pile of leaves in forest ground. They wore sleeveless black shirt with black vest and black strapped cargo pants; the uniform helped them blend perfectly with the dark vicinity if isn’t it for the eye-catching hair color of one of them. The first man at the front has a bright baby blue hair, while the second man has natural black hair.

“Chameleon to Alpha. We’re proceeding to point B-35, no enemy sighted.”

The two figures cladded in black continues their march inside the maze-like structure, parkour-ing around undetected by the scattered security cameras around the building. They stopped when they arrived in front of a password-locked steel door. The two nodded to each other, before the one with light blue hair punched in the lock combination, opening the room.

Inside the room was an array of computers, a glass cylinder with four green-liquid-filled vials protected by a yellow-ish barrier, a massive watergate, a scientist, and three armed guards.

The guards turned their heads when they heard the door dinged opened, the metal hissed loudly, but they see no one outside the room. The confused guards walked closer to the opened door, wanting to inspect the anomaly. One of them stood right before the opened door, face clear with confusion.

Then suddenly, the guard at the very end felt something sharp sliced pass his neck. It’s fast and just barely there, but then he felt warm on his neck. He didn’t get to yell to his teammates nor making any sound, before he dropped down to the ground, _dead._ The two guards at the front were alarmed when they heard the loud _thud_ and the shrieking scream of the scientist witnessing the scene. They saw their comrade’s body on the floor, with his neck slit open. They automatically raised their guns, eyes frantically searching for the enemy, before one of them got yanked by _thin air_ aside, strong grip around his neck.

“W-what the hell!?” screamed the last guard. He pointed his gun with shaking hands to the thin air behind his struggling comrade, _terrified_. He didn’t realize there’s someone else inside the room, creeping behind him from the entrance.

_Bang!_

The guard didn’t manage to pull the trigger as he got shot on his head instead. The black haired-man from before then quickly points his handgun to the scrambling scientist, shooting the man right on his heart, killing him. He then eyed the still-struggling guard, who was looking completely suffocated as an unknown force cutting off his respiratory system, currently trying to fight the invisible grip around his neck. The man sighed,

“How long do you want to drag this out, Jaemin-ah?”

A loud _crack_ then echoed inside the room as the guard’s neck got forcefully snapped to the side, his flailing hands went limp and dropped to his side immediately. The thin air behind him wavered; random lines appearing in the air like static on a vintage television screen, before the lines disrupted, revealing the previous light blue-haired man.

“Not so long.” He said with a smile, letting the lifeless body dropped unceremoniously to the hard concrete.

> Name: Na Jae-min / 나재민 (20)  
> Codename: Jaemin  
> ID Number: 1100-19-130800  
> Power: Invisibility
> 
>   1. He can render himself unseen by the naked eye and become invisible in visible spectrum. He can move about an environment unseen by others and act without being observed. He’s still solid, and still can be tracked with sound-based tracking system (like sonar) or heat-based tracking system.
>   2. He can remain invisible for the longest record of 20 minutes, had to recharge for at least 15 minutes before his power is usable again.
>   3. Mostly given assassination and spy mission, but sometimes got send with the recon team for his hacking specialties.
> 


Jaemin passed the array of computers, before making his way to the main computers located at the center of the room, while Jeno dragging the corpses into one place, piling them up in the corner of the room. 

Jeno then saw the very reason they sneak into this facility; a big glass cylinder protected by some energy field. The cylinder was stupidly big for it was containing only four tiny little vials. “This is Chameleon. We have eyes on prize. Getting the package.” Jeno said to his ear-com.

“Just seeing the color of the liquid inside those vials gives me creeps,” Jeno remarked, inspecting the vials.

“This biochemical weapon shouldn’t fall into the wrong hand or it’ll be a disaster.” Jaemin agreed, eyes scanning the list of codes presented on the black screen. After fiddling with the computer for around 5 minutes at best, Jaemin let out a curse.

“Okay, this is a slight wrinkle, but nothing to be worried about,” Jaemin said, forcing out a laugh.

“What’s up?” Jeno walked closer to him as Jaemin’s finger furiously typing down more commands to the computer, Jeno saw the loading bar loaded before an **‘ERROR’** windows popped out with a mocking _ding_ sound. “ _Damn it,_ I can’t get past after all. The energy barrier protecting the vials is five-layers encrypted.” Jaemin said, thumbing the very obvious failure he just made.

“But there’s another way, right?” Jeno asked, because even though his friends seem slightly frustrated by the event, he didn’t freak out. He didn’t even inform the HQ, so Jaemin must have had other options they can use.

True enough, Jaemin nodded. “Yes. But to deactivate the security system protecting the weapon, we need to breach the database manually from the outside, because I definitely can’t break it from the inside. Meaning, we have to get to the offline data storage, which is located beneath this facility, here, inside an underwater torus.” Jaemin explained, showing his pal the 3D map of the facility they were currently in, he zoomed into the grey torus on the screen.

“How do we get inside?” Jeno knew where’s this going, but he asked anyway.

“The entrance is that watergate right beside us. You jump in there, it will take you straight to the torus.” Jaemin easily said, head cocking into the gaping water gate beside them. Jeno raised an eyebrow, motioning him to continue the explanation, unzipping his uniform.

“This torus consisted of 50.000 gallons of water. The water turbine on the bottom of the tank spin at 15.000 rpm. I will get into the system to turn the turbine off, but doing that will trigger the drainage setup; it will automatically drain the tank and open up the watergate.” Jaemin continued his explanation as Jeno finished up stripping down his black uniform, revealing a diving suit beneath it. The black haired-man neatly folded his uniform, placing them at a table.

“Well, I will close it right after that, but the current will spin up the turbine again at some point. It’ll not as fast as the original, but it will still be spinning around. You will swim down there, get into the storage, plug this disk in and wait for the system to do its work for around.... 3 minutes at best, and then you good to go. Jeno-yah, do you think you can get it?”

Jeno chuckled at the question like he was surprised his friend even asking that. “What, holding my breath for 5 minutes while swimming against the ocean current? Sounds like a morning jogging to me.” He said, stretching out his arms like a mock warm-up, stepping to the edge of the water entrance.

Jaemin snorted back at the answer, “Right. Have a nice swim. Catch some fish while you’re at it.”

Jeno took a deep breath, jumping a few times, before diving right into the gaping water intake with the view of Jaemin giving a thumbs up of _good luck_. When the man was gone, Jaemin did his task right away; hacking into the local system, shutting down the water turbine.

Inside the tank, Jeno was getting swept right into the torus, just like Jaemin had said and he saw the turbine slowing down as Jaemin did his part. Jeno then glanced down to the drainage who was now activated, swallowing down water inside the tank, while on his right, the watergate opened, letting the pressured ocean water flooded into the torus. Jeno let himself got swept by the current for a few seconds, before he started to move his limbs, swimming _against_ the current.

Is it possible for a normal human? _No._

But it’s possible for Jeno because he’s not a _normal human._

> Name: Lee Je-no / 이제노 (20)  
> Codename: Jeno  
> ID Number: 1110-18-230400  
> Power: Enhancement
> 
>   1. He can enhance his own strength, senses, organs capability, and combat ability : 
>     * Enhanced lungs to be able to hold breath longer than normal human
>     * Enhanced muscle capability so to prevent oxygen-exertion
>     * Enhanced senses (but not reaching natural-born gift)
>   2. The duration of his enhancement is UNLIMITED, so it will last until he willed them to deactivate.
>   3. Front line fighters, but often get send out as a recon team.
> 


Jeno searched for the said data storage, and when he found something that matches with Jaemin’s description, he grabbed the steel handle around the storage, fiddling with his back pocket to take out the server interface. He quickly plugged the disk on and then _wait._ He boringly stared at the lazy turn of the turbine below him as he counts down to 180 in his head, legs moving in a steady rhythm to fight the current water. When he reaches 180, the disk blinked green and Jeno quickly plugged off the disk, swimming his way out from the tank.

Jeno resurfaced in the water entrance, gulping down air his lungs demanded. He made his way to the edge, pulling himself out from the tank. “We’re in?” He asked his friend who was still in front of the computer.

“Yep. We’re online. Give me a second.”

Jeno nodded, letting Jaemin do his work, “I didn’t find any fish down there, by the way.” He said jokingly, which earned a sarcastic laugh from the hacker.

“The no-fun Jeno makes an appearance despite mission, I see.”

“It’s quite funny,” Jeno said in mock hurt, uselessly defending his humor sense while drying his body as best as he can with a hand-towel he took out from his chest pocket, before donning on his uniform again. He was fumbling with his shoelaces when he heard Jaemin exclaimed, “ _We got them,”_ from behind him.

A soft buzzing sound can be heard from the direction of the glass cylinder. The light-yellow energy field that was previously surrounding the cylinder buzzed off, before slowly dissipating into thin air. Jaemin shuffled his way to the tall cylinder as it was opening up, making the vials inside accessible. Jaemin then used his gloved hands to take the vials away, placing them safely into a black suitcase, before closing them down and locking it.

Their radio hummed, _“HQ to Chameleon. Report status.”_

“Chameleon reporting in. We got the package. Moving to the extraction point.” Jaemin said, tossed the suitcase to Jeno, which the black-haired man received gracefully, while the hacker returned to the computer, erasing all the evidence.

_“Copy that. HQ to all units. Evacuating the package.”_

When Jaemin was finished with the cleaning, the two spies then left the room, blending once again with the darkness. They smiled giddily during the escape to each other at the pace they were in, “Well this is going smoother than I was exp-“

**_‘CODE RED. CODE RED. ENEMY SPOTTED. CODE RED.’_ **

Both Jeno and Jaemin instantaneously halt at the sudden blaring noise of the alarm. They snapped their heads around, thinking that they got caught; hands reaching to their perspective guns, back pressing into each other as Jaemin points his gun to the front while Jeno checks the back. But there was no one around them, only the two of them standing in a silent hallway. They assessed their surroundings carefully until they heard a loud explosion from _outside_. They looked at each other before groaning at the same time.

“ _Oh, come on_.”

* * *

“Whoo-hoo!”

A short man with blonde hair leaped to the sky, enjoying the chaos of frantic guards and the loud alarm, before landing just on the center of a circle of armed soldiers. They immediately pointed their riffles to him, finger did not hesitate at all to pull the trigger, firing the smiling man who stood still on his place. But weirdly, the figures _disappear_ at the last second, and they just _then_ realized their grave mistake; the bullets they fired impaled each other’s chest as they basically shooting at each other.

A burst of laughter can be heard when the bodies dropped down one by one.

“Pay better attention next time you shoot something, fellas!” The man said cheerfully, stepping over the guards who were busy groaning in pain. He finished off the survived ones, before skipping away from the mess.

> Name: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul / ชิตพล ลี้ชัยพรกุล (24)  
> Codename: TEN  
> ID Number: 1010-03-270296  
> Power: Mind Manipulation
> 
>   1. He can control the minds of others.
>   2. He can project hallucination and illusion to 8 persons at the same time, he can do more but the illusion will be weaker and vague.
>   3. Highly skilled in assassination and hand-to-hand combat, he uses his power to distract his enemy on battle [front line fighters]
> 


Ten saw an incoming troop making their way to him with their weapon ready and he smirked, raising his own rifle, ready to fire at them. But before he could pull the trigger, suddenly ice spikes emerged from the ground so fast Ten almost missed it. The spikes stabbed the guards, skewering them alive.

Ten know who’s the perpetrator.

“Did you just kill-steal me, Xiaojun?” He said to his radio, which earnt a buzzed giggle as a reply. Ten caught a movement in his peripheral vision, and when he looked to the said direction, a trail of ice can be seen on the ground.

“Fuck you, Xiao Dejun! I knew that pure smile needs to be questioned!”

> Name: Xiao Dejun / 肖德俊 (21)  
> Codename: Xiaojun  
> ID Number: 1000-08-080899  
> Power: Cryogenesis (Ice Generation)
> 
>   1. He can produce ice (by freezing the water particles in the air), in dry/hot place he will have difficulty to use his power. He can freeze water, or other liquid. The more abundant source of water available, the stronger he becomes.
>   2. He can control the direction of the produced ice but can't control the ice itself.
>   3. The furthest he can generate ice is up until 5 km radius.
>   4. Weak against heat
> 


Xiaojun was fighting with some guards on Ten’s left. The man generated sharp ice hail from the sky, before directing them to the guards. The bullets from the guard’s weapon were so pathetic and weak compared to the hail. The man looked toward Ten’s direction, sending a taunting smirk to the older man and Ten clicked his tongue, accepting the silent challenge. Ten reloaded his favorite MP9, the weapon fire with the speed of light and the weight is just _perfect_ for Ten. He resumed his halted killing spree, not wanting to lose to the younger man. He spotted some guards near him and was ready to shoot them down, but then the guards suddenly collapsed one after another, getting shot from behind.

“What the hell are you guys doing!? This is not what the plan supposed to be!”

A man with dark blue hair stepped out from a shadowed corner. He was looking positively _furious._ He reloaded his MAC-10 and shot the guards behind him without batting an eye, he was busy glaring dagger to Ten, and if looks could kill, Ten would have been _dead_ by now. But the aforementioned man only let out a frustrated scream, “Did I just got kill-stolen by Kun!? The sky must have been falling down! Am I dead!?”

“Oh, you WILL be, after this! Now someone answers me what in the hell and heaven are you guys doing!?” He screamed to both Ten _and_ his radio over the noisy gunfire and chaos around them.

“We are tired of waiting, Kun-ge! And the package is secured, right? So, there’s no problem!” Xiaojun was the one who answered, he was on the building just behind the fallen guards, looking down sheepishly at the angry man. The young man even dared to wave his hand cutely.

“There IS a problem! Winwin, you’re supposed to watch them!” the man - Kun - exclaimed loudly, before his head turns to his left, calling for yet another man.

On the left rear side of the sector, some guards were fighting against one man. The man has a handsome face, pointy ears, and short black undercut hair. He didn’t seem to use any weapon, as he jumped, before executing a deadly axe kick to the group of guards. His kick met with the hard concrete, leaving a huge crater in the ground. 

“… I already warned them.” Came the soft reply. His voice was so soft and it sounds adorable, and his face is also adorable, but then that _adorable_ man jumped again with his fist swung back, delivering a heavy punch. Again, the attack met with the ground, sending the guards flying a few feet away, _and again,_ the attack destroyed the ground, leaving a hallowed crater.

> Name: Dong Sicheng / 董思成 (23)  
> Codename: Winwin  
> ID Number: 111-07-281097  
> Power: Super strength
> 
>   1. Basically, he has heightened strength and power, beyond normal human average power.
>   2. He can’t control when and where to switch on his power properly, but he can execute daily activities with no problem.
>   3. Weak against strong sedatives and most anesthetic drugs.
> 


“Well seems like you didn’t warn them enough!” Kun yelled back. He could see Winwin pouted to his direction, all while the man was doing an impressive roundhouse kick, sending one guard flying a couple feet from him. The number of fallen guards around the man keeps increasing each second.

“Stop being a boomer, Kun.” Ten booed into his radio.

“We’re the same age, Ten!” Kun could’ve sworn if he didn’t die in the frontline, then he will die out of elevating blood pressure which leads to inflamed arteries inside his heart, resulting in a heart attack, only because of the pure stress his teammates caused.

Kun was so infatuated with the left-wing, he didn’t get to check what was happening at the right side of the area. Kun briefly glanced toward the right rear, spotting the youngest of the group, Yangyang, brutally firing out his Ak-47 rifles.

“A-yo Yangyang, watch your 10 o’clock.” Someone warned the youngest over the radio. Yangyang did a backflip right away, barely avoiding a rain of bullets from one corner that he missed.

“Whoops! Almost got a scratch there, thanks Hendery!” the ombre boy then cheerfully thanked the older man.

“Thank the flying alate on the far-east window.”

> Name: Wong Kun-hang / 黄冠亨 (21)  
> Codename: Hendery  
> ID Number: 101100-44-280999  
> Power: Nature Speak
> 
>   1. He has the ability to communicate with nature. He can talk to plants (either the seeds or the fully grown plant), to the weather, river, ocean, wind, animals, rocks, every part of the nature by speaking verbally, or by touching it physically.
>   2. But it’s up to the nature to answer him or grant his request.
> 


Yangyang turned his head around, searching for the said insect. And when he spotted the tiny animal on a destroyed window, courtesy to a rampaging Winwin near it, he flashed up his sweetest smile. “Thank you!”

Kun felt like yanking his hair out of frustration right now, “Damn it! You guys ARE the problem!”

_“Alpha to Charlie. For the love of God, What the hell are your team doing, Kun. Your team was supposed to sweep the East sector AFTER the package has been evacuated, not BEFORE.”_

“Well tell me about it, Taeyong! I’m as stressed out as you are! Why in the world that my team is full of hell offspring!?”

_“For goodness sake- Just get it done, will you?”_

“I’m working on it!”

Some enemies manage to caught Kun off guard, and Kun had to roll forward to avoid the rain fire. He and Winwin then fight side-by-side, with the hand combatant soldier only using his fist and legs; punching, kicking, _destroying_ everything.

“Emm… bad news Kun-ge, we have another wave here... I saw some artillery guns. maybe you can… erm, _wolf-ed_ out?” Yangyang timidly called from his radio. Kun heard the loud wheel noises, and true enough, he saw two artillery guns being wheeled into their direction, alongside with fresh troops of guards, probably over 35 armed men. The man took a deep breath, smiling in frustration before a thin string _snapped._

“YOU GUYS ARE GETTING ME EARLY GREY HAIR.”

But it was the most perfect trigger for the man; Kun shifted on his spot. The man then let out a low, _animalistic_ growl, before his body began reshaping. His body enlarging, arms twisting, forming a sharp claw, and fur growing on his body. The bulging form then jumped out, and when he landed in front of the advancing enemies, the man was no longer a human, but a huge white and grey wolf, growling dangerously, showing his fangs.

> Name: Qian Kun / 钱锟 (24)  
> Codename: Kun  
> ID Number: 1011-11-010196  
> Power: Werewolf
> 
>   1. He able to transform a part of his body or completely into a wolf. His wolf form is a huge white and dark grey wolf.
>   2. His longest wolf-form duration is 8 hours in complete wolf form, longer when full moon; up until one day.
>   3. At first, he lost his consciousness when in wolf form, but he then developed well enough to retain his sanity during wolf form.
> 


The majestic wolf howled at the troops, spit dripping down his opened mouth, his green eyes shining with murder-intent. His ears sticking straight out to the side, body positioning low with his teeth and fangs bared, clearly sending a death-threat to the marching human in front of him.

The wolf leaped to them, targeting the gun artilleries, clawing at the sturdy steels. He locked his jaw to the long tube, ripping the barrel off the weapon. He jumped to the second gun, ready to do the same treatment as the previous one. The guards trying to shot him during his attack, but even when his boys are noisy and a rule-breaker, they are _dependable_. Kun trusts them to guard his back. The fact that none of the bullets hit Kun’s wolf form was solid proof.

Now with the guns officially unusable, they continued the annihilation of the right sector.

* * *

“Change of plan.”

In another part of the huge facility was two men, hiding behind a steel container, one of them knelt down, checking the area with hawk-like eyes. The other was standing behind him, checking the virtual map on his artificial lens screen.

The pink-haired man briefly scanned the outline, before turning them off, shuffling closer the edge. “I will ask the HQ to map the underground sector and then we’re good to go.”

“What, already?” the other man -the one with dark brown hair- asked, he looked over his shoulder, as if to make sure he heard that right.

The pink-haired man sighed tiredly, they just begun the mission but he felt tired already, “Apparently Kun’s children can’t sit their butts. We need to move. Alpha to Bravo, you hear me?” he spoke to his ear-com.

“ _Loud and clear.”_

“Execute plan C. Your team go secure the weaponry, Johnny.” He instructed after scanning over the alternative plans he had made inside his mind before executing this mission. After 8 years of being a soldier, he just knew one plan is never enough.

_“Copy that.”_

The man let out a short-relieved sigh when he heard the answer, Johnny’s group will do a really good job cutting off the enemies’ weapon supplies, they have the perfect members for that. The pink-haired man then addressed another group, “Alpha to Delta. Any problems down below?”

_“Besides the fact that we’re currently surrounded by enemies who appeared out of nowhere because the alarm suddenly went off, and maybe because of the fallen wall which Jisung accidentally destroyed all the while where we are located at the most strategic place which is right in the heart of the enemy base, no._ ”

“What-” The man had to stop for a moment to oppress the sudden headache forming inside his head, “Goddamn it, you know what? Just clean the damned area and regroup with Bravo Team, Jaehyun.” He was about to curse to the radio but opted with letting the teams do _whatever_ they think is good for the mission.

He was sure he will regret this decision later, but right now he didn’t care.

“ _Yes, sir.”_

He sighed again, “Tell me why I brought these guys again?” he asked his companion after the connection shut off.

His friend, who was busy trying to hide his giggle after hearing the whole ordeal, _and oh he failed to do that so miserably_ , “I don’t know, man. Upper’s order?”

“Damn right, upper’s order.”

* * *

_“Alpha to HQ. Requesting outline of the main sector, underground section.”_

A man with bright red hair whistled when the request came through his ear-com. The man was seated in the middle of the control room, on the desk in front of him was three monitor setups with various dark-themed windows scattered around the widescreen.

“HQ to Alpha. Processing the map.”

He glanced forward; on the very front part of the not-so-spacious room were multiple huge monitors, covering all the walls. Some of the monitors showing the building outline, and after briefly assessed the available map of the enemy base, he noticed that indeed they didn’t have the underground section part.

He then quickly typing down some code on his screen but halted midway reaching out to his mug, finding it empty. He clicked his tongue out loud, annoyed that he runs out his much-needed coffee. But then the man smirked, stay still for a good 10 seconds, before returning typing on his keyboard.

_Bring me coffee_

His smirk grew wider when he heard a loud huff from behind him.

“Really, Taeil-hyung? Did you just use your power to order me to make you some coffee?”

Taeil then turns his swivel chair with an innocent smile, only to be met with a not-so-friendly glare from the man behind him.

“I need my daily dose of caffeine, Doyoung-ah. Oh, and we need to map the underground section after this.”

“You are unbelievable.”

> Name: Moon Tae-il / 문태일 (26)  
> Codename: Taeil  
> ID Number: 110-06-140694  
> Power: Telepathic
> 
>   1. He can transmit information from one mind to another (up to 50 people at the same time) with radius of 150 km.
>   2. He able to force himself to enter one’s mind to extract information, but the said person has to be in semi-conscious state or even unconscious. He can also use this to erase a part/whole memory of his target.
>   3. He can’t branch people with high control of their subconscious.
> 


After the younger man – Doyoung – put a filled cup of coffee on Taeil’s desk, he returned to his own desk, making himself comfortable on his cushioned chair. He then glanced back to the red-haired man, “I’m ready.”

Taeil nodded, reaching out his power to link his mind with Doyoung, and then to one more person inside the room. When the link is connected, Taeil could feel Doyoung slowly closing his eyes, and _suddenly_ they are inside the enemy base. They are not there physically; they just _see_ it. The vision they saw was like zooming in from a really really big picture. The vision zoomed pass the places very quickly, searching for the unknown territory which is the underground sector; Taeil was glad he’s used to it by now, the view changing speed can make one has severe motion sickness for days.

> Name: Kim Dong-young / 김동영 (24)  
> Codename: Doyoung  
> ID Number: 1111-04-010296  
> Power: Clairvoyance
> 
>   1. He can see anything within a 250 km radius.
>   2. He needs more concentration to see details, like searching for specific things/person.
>   3. His ability will stop if he gets disturbed.
>   4. He can use his ability through screen (but he can only see the room around the said screen)
> 


They then see the entrance to the underground part; a big steel gate with a password-protected lock. With Doyoung’s power, they can bypass that, looking far beyond the gate. They scanned the place thoroughly with a quick swift of a glance before the Doyoung cut off his power, and they returned back to the control room. He looked at the last person in the room, “You got that, Renjun-ah?”

Behind him was a young male with blonde hair, some of his hair strands were colored light purple. He blew his bubblegum, smirking toward the questioner.

“I got it.”

The said male then opened a drafting software application on his computer, and with nimble hands, he began outlining the place he just saw.

> Name: Huang Renjun / 黄仁俊 (20)  
> Codename: Renjun  
> ID Number: 10001-40-230300  
> Power: Photographic Memory
> 
>   1. He can remember great volumes of information, in greater detail and for much longer than the average human, they can read books, listen to song lyrics, encounter people or experience events and recall a vast deal of the details of their experience.
>   2. Superb drawing skill, can draw a map of place he only surveyed once with great details. He also mastered computer graphic drafting skill.
> 


In just a couple of minutes, on the screen in front of the youngest was a really detailed outline of the enemy base’s underground sector. It was so detailed that the lines are almost overlapping with each other. Renjun double-checks his work with sharp eyes, before smiling and swipe the map to the side; it was delivered to the main computer, to Taeil’s computer.

“Nicely done, Renjun-ah.” The eldest complimented as he sends the said map to the Alpha leader.

“Outline delivered to your screen, soldier.” Tael informed to the microphone.

_“Thanks, Renjun, Taeil-hyung.”_

“Wait, hyung. I found something. Can’t tell what is it, can’t get past it. 2 levels below you, west.” Doyoung said as he remembered the strange room he saw when he used his power. He strangely can’t look what inside it, _that_ alone is an anomaly.

_“…You can’t see what inside?”_

“Yes. It’s weird.” Doyoung answered hesitantly.

_“Okay then, we will check it after this.”_

“Right. Please be careful, Hyung.”

* * *

**Southwest Sector, open field.**

A team consisted of three persons arrived at a large warehouse. The guards were emerging from the inside of the place with fresh weapons and equipment. They saw some guns and tanks wheeled out from the tall and cranky place.

“I spot the weaponry.” The man at the upfront of the trio said, holding his fist to signed the men behind him to halt. He has burgundy hair and stood the tallest between the three of them. He glanced to the man just behind him, a slightly shorter man with long blonde hair, the tall man smirked, “let’s throw them a surprise party, Yuta.”

The man – Yuta – smirked, moving to the front, before throwing something -a small knife- to the large entry of the warehouse, the blade landed just beside the door.

At the front gate of the weaponry, one guard saw the stabbed melee weapon on the ground. He looked at the tiny weapon curiously; it’s a standard combat knife with brown leather holder. The guard crouched down because he saw something strange on the holder, the holder pattern was weird; it has the pattern of some foreign character. The guard reached out his hand, wanting to take out the weapon.

But suddenly he came face to face with a smirking man. Like, the man suddenly appeared right in front of him.

“This is robbery, fuckers!”

> Name: Nakamoto Yuta / 中本悠太 (26)  
> Codename: Yuta  
> ID Number: 100-10-261095  
> Power: Teleportation
> 
>   1. He can teleport himself to anywhere, as long as it has his mark.
>   2. He can teleport up to 5 persons (including himself) but it requires so much energy he will pass out right after. The further his destination is, the more power it consumes.
>   3. Highly skilled in close combat, mainly using short knives and handgun [front line fighters]
> 


Yuta is the owner of non-elemental ability, teleportation. He can teleport to any place as long as they have his mark on them. The marking was a beautiful sculpture of Japanese character which can be translated into _‘Chain’_ , the marks can be in the form of a chiseled pattern, or sticker, or even drawing.

Yuta easily killed the guard with a quick shot to his head while his other hand playfully flipping off his knife. All the small knives he has had a cloth wrapping on their holder, a cloth with Yuta's marking as its pattern, so basically, his knives _are_ his marking.

It went downhill pretty fast after that.

The enemy, now fully aware of Yuta’s presence, immediately grab their own weapon, raining the smirking man with bullets. But much to their surprise, none of them made contacts with the blond. The bullets weirdly dropped to the ground, as if they were colliding with _an invisible_ wall. Just then they realize two more men were infiltrating their weapon storage.

The burgundy-haired man was the reason the bullets didn’t hit Yuta. He flicked his fingers, and a thin glass-like layer in front of the teleporter dissipating. The man then dragged out his weapon, an impressive M249, and grinned evilly,

“Alright folks, _eat some shit._ ”

> Name: Suh Young-ho / 서영호 (26)  
> Codename: John Suh / Johnny  
> ID Number: 0001-09-090295  
> Power: Shield
> 
>   1. He can make a thin layer barrier with a swipe of his hand that can withstand one (1) attack (any kind of attack, his defense is absolute) After the barrier got struck it will disperse right away, but it can withstand **anything**.
>   2. He can make max 6 barriers (making a cube) that last 30 seconds each, longer if he concentrates at it, but he can only concentrate on 1 barrier only. The longest record is 2 minutes.
>   3. Front line fighters, he likes using heavy weapon such as machine gun.
> 


They clean the area pretty quickly after that. The last member of their group didn’t even have to do anything as Johnny and Yuta wrecked all the guards easily. After the last guard down, they entered the huge warehouse.

“Copy the blueprint, get all the data, send them to HQ,” Johnny said, reaching one of the weapon's blueprints on the sketch desk.

“Got it.”

While Yuta gets to the computer, Johnny went to the manual folder shelf. The tall man then glanced at the last member, a young boy with purple hair, “Haechan, get ready to blast this building off.”

That order brings an evil smile from the said man, “My favorite.”

While Yuta was busy fiddling with the computer, Johnny busy searching for an important document stored in the shelf, and Haechan set up the bomb, their ear-com buzzed.

_“Four boogies detected. Incoming from north.”_

Johnny didn’t even bother to check the sky for the incoming, instead he spoke to the radio, “Hey Lucas you hear that? Some little birdies are coming from north. Take care of that!”

There's a loud sound coming from outside, like wind getting beaten up – _wings flapping_ – before a loud scream can be heard from a distance, gradually getting louder and louder in a crescendo.

“Yessss, sir!”

A handsome man _flew_ pass the warehouse entrance, heading to the north. The man has silver hair, the same color as the beautiful silver wings growing on his back.

> Name: Wong Yukhei / 黄旭熙 (21)  
> Codename: Lucas  
> ID Number: 10100-20-250199  
> Power: Wings/Flight
> 
>   1. He has re-growable wings, takes 2 weeks for the wings to regrow.
>   2. His wings have high durability, but weak against fire (they burn easily)
>   3. He can fly as fast as 40 mph
>   4. Front line fighters, mainly handling the aerial attack. His weapon of choice is missile launcher.
> 


Lucas flew high in the sky, searching for any sight of the said missiles. He saw them, approaching the base with high velocity. The man then flapped his wings strongly, creating a gust of winds, speeding toward the flying weapon with his stinger readied on his shoulder.

“Boom!” Lucas loudly exclaimed as he shot the first missiles with his own. He watches the two weapons collided into a perfect explosion with glee, his expression will remind you of those children who watch firework for the first time, the excitement they radiate from their eyes exactly mirroring what Lucas’s eyes right now. Except with the watching firework part, well it _looked_ kinda like a firework.

“And- Boom!”

The second missile was down, he launched himself to the third, maneuvering himself closer while reloading the missile.

“Again-Boom!”

The third was down.

“The last- BOOM!”

And Lucas shot the last one differently; this time, he dashed toward the missile straight on while shooting his stinger, creating a cool action-movie-like-scene where he flew past the explosion.

“Hell yeah!”

* * *

In the warehouse, Yuta and Johnny finished their information looting and were waiting for Haechan to finish his task. “You ain’t done yet, Hyuck?” ask Yuta, getting impatient. They heard a frantic footstep approaching them, the enemy’s reinforcement. “ _Shit-_ Hyuck you better finish that quick.”

“Give me a second- alright it’s done! All set!” he said, pressing the red button. The black screen went alive, showing a glaring 00:05 in red.

Johnny nodded, “okay, let’s get the hell out of here!” He glanced at Yuta, who get the order without the need for it to be said, grabbing his two friends by their arms.

Haechan took this chance to look at the newly arrived enemy, smiling mockingly sweet to them. “Well, gentlemen, I’m sorry to say but this party is getting boring.”

Yuta teleported them away right as the timer hit 00:00

“Get LIT!”

The weaponry _explodes_ like it was hit by a mini-sized nuclear bomb. The sheer force of the explosion swallowing all the enemies and their weapon supply, the shockwave blasting away the reinforcement, and the fire caught any building around the weaponry with the ember of fire dancing lazily in the air.

The three men popped up at the first hiding place, with Yuta's marking sticker on the wall, before their radio hummed alive.

_“I just see a large explosion. That’s Haechan, right? Man- why you have to bother using old tricks like that, your power is basically the same as those exploding cans!”_

“You insult my boys one more time, Lucas, and I will shove them right into your asshole, bastard. And not all of us can freely use their power without feeling exhausted!”

_“Jealousy is a poison, Haechan-ah.”_

If Lucas was trying to get on Haechan's nerve then he was doing a _really_ good job. The man then saw an approaching enemy and he decided to vent off his anger to them instead of his teammate.

He raised his hand, curling them, and the hot steam around the burning warehouse swift. Haechan then punches the air at the vicinity of their enemy, and suddenly the guards were being sent flying backward, getting punched by the hot air. Haechan was not even looking at them, trying to control his anger.

“I’m _not_ jealous of you and your fucking stupid wings, Lucas!”

> Name: Lee Dong-hyuck / 이동혁 (20)  
> Codename: Haechan  
> ID Number: 1001-16-060600  
> Power: Thermokinesis
> 
>   1. He can produce and manipulate heat.
>   2. He CAN NOT manipulate fire, only the heat of the fire.
>   3. Bomb specialist and arsonist, like to use grenade in order for his power to be usable [front liners]
> 


“Watch your language, brat.” Yuta boringly added, fighting some guards himself.

“I don’t want to hear that from you, Yuta-hyung!”

Johnny sighed tiredly, “ _Guys_. Eyes on the enemy.”

* * *

**West Sector, underground facility.**

A man was running in a hallway, followed by a bunch of armed guards. The man was tall with dark brunette hair and really fair skin. The man kept glancing behind him over and over again; He was luring the guard to follow him, herding the oblivious enemies toward the trap his groupset. Their chase ended when the man turned a sharp corner, and they arrive at a rather spacious hall.

“They’re in position- Jisung!” the man yelled.

“Leave it to me!” a boyish voice replied.

One second the guard was standing on the hall, the next second the floor beneath their feet _crumbled_. The guards screamed as they fell into the abyss below them. On the end side of the hallway was a tall -almost as tall as the first man- boy with brown-gold highlight hair. Both of his hands planted to the ground.

> Name: Park Ji-sung / 박지성 (18)  
> Codename: Jisung  
> ID Number: 1101-30-050202  
> Power: Decay
> 
>   1. Anything he touches crumble to dust. (gradually, the longer he touches something, the more it decays)
>   2. His power take times, so it takes some time after he touches something before it begun to decay, so acid and hot things still hurt him even when he can decay them.
>   3. He can mostly control his power, so his daily activities aren’t hindered by his power.
>   4. Front line fighters, but dislike using his power because he tires easily after using his ability. Use gun and shotgun as his main weapon.
> 


“Nice one, kid.” The first man complimented as they both made their way out of the room. When they exited the hall, one more boy joined them, this time a good-looking boy with pitch-black hair, styled partway.

The three of them then saw enemies coming from the opposite part, and they readied their weapons.

While the two young boys took out their guns, the first man instead took out a black water bottle. He then emptied the content to the floor; the water pooled underneath his feet. When the bottle was empty, he put it back to his side strap, smirking at the advancing enemies. He moved his hand, and the water on the floor _floated_ into the air, forming sharp droplets.

He swung his hand and the droplets moved at _impossible_ speed toward his enemies. The droplets slice through all the enemies it can reach.

> Name: Jung Yun-o / 정윤오 (23)  
> Codename: Jaehyun  
> ID Number: 101-05-140297  
> Power: Hydrokinesis
> 
>   1. He can control and manipulate water.
>   2. He can control ONLY water; he can’t control other liquid. He can control the water inside a suspension solution, but needs extra concertation and power to control the water inside a colloids and pure solution.
>   3. He CAN NOT produce water.
>   4. Front liners, like using average gun and riffles. He always carrying around a bottle of water with him.
> 


“Jaehyun-hyung, we are literally beside an ocean, why don’t you- I don’t know, flooded the area? They are so many of them and It will take all the enemies at once.” Jisung asked as he shot down two enemies using his shotgun. He thumbed toward the thick steel wall beside them, the only thing separating them with the deep ocean outside.

“Yeah- they are so many of them thanks to _a certain someone_ who foolishly collapsing a wall in the middle of an enemy base. Oh, and _that certain someone_ also suggested to flood the area and drown us all together with them, genius! I swear to god, that big head of yours is just filled with air.” Snorted the other boy.

“Well, you don’t have to be so harsh about it, Chenle!” Jisung whined to his friend, and the other boy with dark hair – Chenle – stick his tongue out.

“Boys, can we focus on the task here?”

“Right. Sorry, hyung.”

After around 20 minutes of fighting, all the enemies were down. The three soldiers were all unscratched, with only slight graze here and there. Chenle and Jisung reloaded their weapon while Jaehyun gathered the water back inside his bottle again with a motion of his hand. He turned his head toward the black-haired boy.

“Chenle, scan the area,” Jaehyun said after all the fluid was inside his bottle once again.

The said boy nodded, before closing his eyes, concentrating. Approximately 15 seconds later he re-opened his eyes.

“I hear 25-no, 30 men upstairs, armed. From the sound of it, they are armed with heavy gun.” He informed his peers.

> Name: Zhong Chenle / 钟辰乐 (19)  
> Codename: Chenle  
> ID Number: 10010-25-221101  
> Power: Audiokinesis
> 
>   1. Sound manipulation; he can create, shape and manipulate sound.
>   2. He can mimic, intensify, hush, distort, warp, strengthen, echo, speed up, and slow down sound.
>   3. He can use his power to track down target, sonar-like tracking (enhanced hearing).
>   4. He is NOT immune to his own power, so he has to use earplugs/headphone to block his own voice when using the loud voice.
> 


Jaehyun _tsk-_ ed out loud. “Alright, we stormed up there, kill them, then we re-group with Johnny’s team. Get ready.”

After running past another long hallway, the three of them arrived at a steel stair leading to the upper floor. Now that they are right beneath the enemies, even Jaehyun and Jisung, those who didn’t have sensitive hearing like Chenle, can hear the loud commotion happening on the floor above. They glanced toward each other, sending a quiet message, before advancing upstairs in Jaehyun’s cue.

The armed guard stationed upside readied their guns to the three soldiers. But like a fool’s errand, their effort was met with pure devastation as they stood no chance to the three ability-gifted persons. The enemies tried to hold them back from marching forward, but the sheer power and destruction of the Delta Team were unmatched. Even when the one-side fight seems so unfair, the enemies have the advantage of numbers, and after a couple of moments, two of them manage to sneak behind the youngest of the three.

“Jisung- watch out!”

_Bang!_

The said man turned his body in shock by the loud gun sound, only to see his attackers went down with a hole on their forehead. Jisung follow the bullet trajectory and managed to catch a glimpse of light reflection from one of the windows on the tallest tower behind them. He smiled happily before taking out his radio, “Oh wow- that’s really close… Thanks a lot, Jungwoo-hyung!”

_“No problem.”_ Replied a soft voice from the other side of the line.

“You use the normal bullet this time? I thought you said you stick with the poisoned darts?” Jaehyun asked.

_“It’s easier this way. Besides, my palms have been itching a lot lately. Better save the poison.”_

> Name: Kim Jung-woo / 김정우(19)  
> Codename: Jungwoo  
> ID Number: 10000-15-190298  
> Power: Poison
> 
>   1. He can secrete venom from his palm, his venom can kill plants in 25 minutes, animals in 2 hours, and human in one day.
>   2. Immune to both venom and toxic.
>   3. He can change the chemical of his own venom.
>   4. He can recognize any poison if he can extract it, and proceed to make the antidote.
>   5. The sniper of the team.
> 


There were 10 men left and Jaehyun already reloaded his weapon twice. He threw a worried glance at the two adolescents with him and feeling relieved when he saw them doing alright. Jungwoo has been helping them too by shooting enemies who manage to get too close to them.

“Hey! Jungwoo-hyung has been stealing our kills!” Jisung whined when the enemy he was about to kill was shot down by the sniper.

_“I’m not stealing anything from you guys.”_

“That’s because you keep talking, big head!”

“You seem to forget that your head is as big as mine!”

Jaehyun sighed, suddenly feeling headache. He didn’t know why he even worried about them. “Please don’t make me regret bringing you into this operation.”

* * *

**Meeting Place, Point A-23**

“Jaehyun! You cleared your area?”

Johnny spotted the Delta team coming from what he was sure was the direction of the West Sector. A few minutes ago there was only his team, the Bravo team, who’s present at the meeting point. The four of them were greeted by a bunch of enemies, and even now they are fighting against them.

“Yeah- It’s quite hard because I have two teenagers who are currently going through puberty and always wanting to create trouble here and there,” Jaehyun answered, taking a position on Johnny’s right. He sent a quick hand signal to his team to take their position.

“We’re not!” came the simultaneously answer from both Chenle and Jisung.

_“Jokes on you, Jaehyun! I have five with me! And I didn’t even clear half of my area!”_

“Winwin isn’t that bad, Kun,” Yuta said to his radio.

_“Then I still have FOUR with me!”_

“True that.”

_“Did I just hear four? Isn’t it supposed to be three? I am not included in those ‘troublemakers’, right?”_

_“YOU are literally the worst out of them, Ten!”_

_“I see Kun transformed into his wolf form. I had to resist the urge to abandon my spot and go pet him. He’s cute.”_

_“This is NOT the time, Jungwoo!”_

_“Oh, he’s already in his human-form now. Less-cute.”_

“Screw this- Where’s Taeyong-hyung and Mark?” Jaehyun asked as he shot down an enemy just behind Haechan. He got a thumbs up from the younger.

“I don’t know. The last thing I knew, they were heading to the main sector. We’ve been on radio silence since then.” Johnny shrugged; feet busy kicking away his empty bullet shells around his standing place. There only a few enemies left around them before Lucas’s loud voice alarmed them.

“Incoming!”

Johnny managed to spawn his barrier just in time to protect him and Jaehyun from one of the sudden grenade attacks. The rest of the grenades hit the place all around them and it explodes with a really deafening sound. He can hear coughing and curses after the explosion ceased.

“Shit- anybody’s hit?” Johnny asked his radio to the join channel between his team and Delta’s team.

“Negative. We’re okay! But fuck that’s scared the hell out of- Whoa!” Yuta’s answer was cut short because they got showered by yet another rain fire.

“Lucas! How’s the view up there?”

“Not good! I think this is their last effort, I see more than 50 enemies. They’ve sent a battery, 5 artillery guns.”

True enough, in the next second Johnny saw the approaching enemies. It’s definitely more than 50. They are heavily outnumbered, and also, they’ve already used so many ammunitions, he didn’t know how long they can hold them up before being forced out to fight using their ability. Which unfortunately some of them isn’t lucky enough to be able to use their power without getting exhausted pretty quickly (Lucas and Jaehyun is one of the lucky persons who can use their power freely)

_Shit._

Not to mention Johnny spotted some of the soldiers are wearing a different uniform than the enemies they’ve taken down so far; they are the elite unit, the special force designed to counter gifted-people like them. They didn’t have power themselves, but they have special bullets that work specifically on gifted-people. That bullet hurts 100x worse than normal bullets. They like to call them _viper._

_Double Shit_.

“Everyone be aware, vipers are coming. Try not to get shot by them, it hurt like bitch.”

_“Fuck, really?”_

“Yeah, I see 8 of them. Those damned white badges; it’s them.”

Johnny glanced back toward the marching enemies and he cursed under his breath again. He directed Yuta and Jisung to go around the zone, aiming to ambush the enemy platoons. Some of his friends informed that they will be running out ammo soon, so Johnny hope they get the advantage of surprise.

But when the enemies advanced a couple meters more, they heard a roaring thunder.

The enemies stopped their attack, glancing confusedly to the now cloudy sky above them. The sky grumbled loudly, before a bolt of lightning striking down toward the ground where the enemies stood. Some of them got burned alive, leaving burnt-charcoaled bodies behind, while the lucky ones get sweep aside by the sheer force of the electricity.

“Yo, sorry we’re late!” a man with black hair styled parted in the middle, jumped down out of nowhere, and landed fancily beside the Bravo leader. He gave Johnny a big grin, which the later answer with his own tired grin.

“About damn time, Mark.”

> Name: Lee Min-hyung / 이민형 (21)  
> Codename: Mark Lee / Mark  
> ID Number: 0011-01-020899  
> Power: Electricity
> 
>   1. He can produce and manipulate electricity, elemental ability.
>   2. Has high control of his power, can control how strong the electricity (from merely a spark to a huge lightning)
>   3. Front line fighter.
> 


“We didn’t know it will take so much time. Oh damn, is that _vipers_?”

The boy – Mark – scrunched his eyes to take a better look at eight white-badged enemies, who are now pointing their special gun to them. Johnny sighed in relief, if Mark is here, then _he_ is here too. So the two men stood still on their place, unbothered, even after then _vipers_ fired their gun, along with the artillery gun behind the _vipers_.

The bullets and missiles _just_ _stopped_ dead on their track.

They floated lazily on their place, with a tint of pink-aura dancing around the frozen-still-bullets. The special squad was flabbergasted when they saw all the ammunitions slowly rotating; now facing toward them. And before they could even scream or fire-impulsively-out-of-fear, the bullets were flying at them 10 times faster than the original; all the bullets hit vital point.

The man with pink hair, the Alpha leader, hopped down from the roof and landed smoothly beside Jaehyun. He didn’t bat an eye to the now scattered bloodied bodies around them. He didn’t even bother to acknowledge the fact that he just killed _all_ the enemies in one go.

> Name: Lee Tae-yong / 이태용 (25)  
> Codename: Taeyong  
> ID Number: 0010-02-010795  
> Power: Psychokinesis
> 
>   1. He can move object(s) with the power of his mind.
>   2. Dexterity: [Expert] He can manipulate objects as long as he can see/perceive them.
>   3. Strength: [Master] He can move mass equal to building.
>   4. Front line fighter
> 


“Aww man, You guys sure wreak havoc here,” Mark said after inspecting the chaos of the area they were in.

“Hate to inform this to you, but you’ve done worse than all of us combined, Mark-hyung,” Haechan replied with sarcasm as he reloaded his gun for the last time, hearing the empty shells hit the ground. Mark beamed up when he saw his friend, covered in dust and bruises, but okay nonetheless.

“Glad to see you’re fine too, buddy.”

“Where have you been?” Jaehyun asked the Alpha leader, walking closer to the two squad leaders.

“West storage. Doyoung found something, had to take a detour.”

“What did you guys find?” Johnny questioned as he strapped his weapon into its place.

“Doyoung said he can’t see what’s inside, that’s really weird, but it’s only an old archive. I checked the documents, it’s like some sort of experiment shit. I don’t know, I’ll drop them to research department after we return.”

Taeyong fiddled with his hologram screen, checking their surroundings, before speaking to his radio. “Talk to me, Jaemin! How’s the package?”

_“Safe and sound, hyung. We’re on the extraction point already._ ”

“Good. How about you, Kun?”

_“We’re finished here as well.”_

Taeyong huffed out a happy sigh. He clapped once, loud enough for their radio to take in the sound.

“Nice. Mission clear, boys. Rendezvous point in three minutes.”

“We’re going home.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo that's the introduction, guys! What do you guys think? It took so much time making the concept for this story so I hope it didn't turn that bad lol. Anyways, do you guys noticed the references I used in this story? (hint: look at the ID number 😌) If you notice them comment below so that I can give you a clap 😂
> 
> and... do you notice... something's... missing? 👀


	2. Chapter 02 - The Sparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark saw no lie in his eye, so he trusts him. He always do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently some of you guys noticed that yes, I still haven't introduced Yangyang's power yet. But don't you worry coz he will be, in the future 😌 He actually hold an important key to the progress of this story.
> 
> In this chapter, there will be a lot of explanations. Also, there's some history lesson and I added hints here and there too. I suggest paying a lot of attention to them 😉

**Year 30XX AD**

The world was once a tranquil and peaceful place.

But it had changed since the founding of nuclear weapons. The weapon holds so much power it triggers the greed inside each country. At that time, the country with a stronger weapon will get more privilege and advantages in the world table.

Chaos erupted not so long after that.

The countries then began competing with each other to create and invest the deadliest weapon, ranging from nuclear to biochemical weapons. Countries that are unable to keep up with the advancement will be left in the dust; either got acquired by a stronger country or perish from the world map as a side-effect of war between two stronger countries, fighting over land and glory. There are so many small towns left deserted, destroyed, charred, and abandoned; an ugly reminder of the war happened and _still_ happening.

It was living _hell_.

The world order was thrown into haywire. The number of violence and crime peaks up and the number of deaths caused by poverty or murder also making a really morbid upward curve in the chart. They test out the newly developed weapons to each other, causing nature disturbance and carnage all over the world.

It was either killed, or _be killed_.

It was either destroyed, or _be destroyed_.

The world isn’t being divided into _black_ and _white_ anymore; they are living in an endless, forever _grey_.

This called the united world declared a state of emergency. Each country, given time, found their own way to survive inside the dystopian situation. Some of them remain neutral mostly but still advancing their weaponry, some getting the fire of ambition and strengthen their military force to fight the evil-doers, and some choose to contract a third party to handle the wrong-doer.

South Korea choose the third option.

South Korea contracted many mercenary organizations for the safety of their country, with SM organization being one of the groups that tied contract with the nation. The organization was one of the biggest mercenary group in the country, if not the world, since they have one specific squad inside their large community; the NCT Special Force.

Why this squad is special? Because this squad consisted of gifted individuals who are considered an aberration in the world; they have _power_.

It is also one of the perplexing effects of the nuclear development. When the first mass-attack of nuclear bomb and biochemical weapon occurs, it also triggers the change in mother nature. The radioactive and radiation changed the DNA inside humans and living-being who got exposed to them way too much.

They are called “ _The Anomaly”_

They are divided into 4 groups based on their time emergence.

The ‘ _First Generation’_ is the very first _Anomaly_ to be discovered. They are those who can _sense_ that something is different in the earth itself. They didn’t have power, but they can _sense_ the change in nature. They caused quite an uproar in the world at that time, because one of them decide to let the world know that he can sense dormant disease in a completely healthy person.

The _‘Second Generation’_ are those who are able to _understand_ the change in nature. They are gifted with the knowledge to utilize the change of nature. They are widely known as the inventor of supernatural weapons; the types of weapons that will give you supernatural effects, such as bullets that can erase memory, a dart that can control the mind, and so on.

The _‘Third Generation’_ is the first generation that can use power. They are the first generation whose genes mutated, resulting in them having supernatural power. They didn’t have the power since birth, most cases are their power _awaken_ at some point in time, where their genes fully mutated and granting them supernatural ability.

Now, the _‘Fourth Generation’_ are those who are _born_ with the power itself. The fourth generation is far stronger and more stable with their power than the third generation.

That’s also what’s makes NCT Special Force terrifying.

One “Anomaly” inside an armed organization is already considered rare enough, but SM manages to have 21 people with each unique and special superpower. All of them are the _‘Fourth Generation’_ to add it on.

Even without the presence of the special squad, SM is already notorious for having other forces such as TVXQ (a deadly duo with _almost_ inhumane battle skill), SJ (a group of war veterans and practical soldiers), SHINee (Specialist group) and EXO (another group with superpower, but they are the _‘Third Generation’_ power-holders)

NCT Special Force did some of the hardest and most dangerous mission in South Korea’s history, and they contributed greatly to preserving the safety of the country. Because of this, NCT is both adored and feared by people. Even when the society is grateful to them, they still feel unease with the fact that they have superpower, something beyond human general understanding and something which is _different_.

So, in their contract with the nation, there are some specific rules regarding the special force; two of them are the government will do a weekly examination on them, and they willingly volunteer to be observed and experimented with (of course with proper experiment regulation under the surveillance of the world nation law).

The unspoken fact is that: the world wants to know _how to obtain the said power_.

That is why even after completing the mission from the government, all the boys went into the Lab first instead of their comfy barrack. The scientist will do the routine check-up; they take blood sample, the soldiers fill out a form, they take their vitals, and then done. The 21 young males did the routine examination naturally like it was already engraved to their mind.

* * *

“So, what’s inside the mystery archive?”

Taeyong turned his head as he heard someone addressed him, it was Johnny, entering the common room with an iced americano in one hand and a large portion of wrapped club sandwich in another, the pink-haired man noted the presence of Jaehyun tailing behind the Chicago man with the same menu on his hand. Taeyong flashed a tired smile at them.

“I don’t know. Already dropped the entire documents to the S&R department. Baekhyun-hyung will take good care of them.” He answered.

Taeyong was currently typing down his mission report, and he only progressed 35% so far, as he took off his reading glass to rub the tiredness away from his eyes.

“You know, the discovery of unknown documents during a raid is categorized as confidential information. And the proper procedure to hand confidential information is through submitted formal documents to the control department along with the mission report. But a _certain someone_ just went and gone, casually contacting the head department, with a _phone call_ on top of that, and sending the said _confidential information_ inside a brown, ugly envelope folder, giving them to a randomly-appointed-intern to deliver.” Someone on Taeyong’s left said with heavy sarcasm laced into his voice.

“Damn Doie- your jealousy is showing once again.” Johnny grimaced as the younger sent him a death glare from his seat.

Taeyong laughed at that, “What am I supposed to do? Baekhyun-hyung said to me specifically that I can go straight up to him if something occurs.”

“Ever the obedient junior.” The clairvoyance scoffed.

“I can smell some jealousy-“

“Shut the fuck up, Jaehyun.”

Taeyong laughed again at the mock hurt expression on Jaehyun’s face. “Take it easy, Doyoung-ah… I still love you.” He easily said as his attention returned to the mission report on his screen, his marching was halted in the third paragraph of the first section, unsure how to explain that _‘Ten and his minion broke the rules and wreak havoc just because they were bored’_ without sounding so unprofessional.

Doyoung plopped down on the vacant spot beside Taeyong, eying the report he was currently working on and snickered “Hyung, you’re still stuck at that part? It’s been 30 minutes.”

“Try putting yourself in my shoes; that mission was a disaster.”

“It’s quite fun, y’ know? It’s been a while since the last time all 21 of us went to a mission together.” Johnny added, munching down his big sandwich which Taeyong was sure it will be enough to feed him for 2 days, _how the hell Johnny eat that?_

“That’s because it was an SS Mission, Johnny.”

“But it was fun!”

“You can say that because you got hyuck and Yuta-hyung on your team,” Jaehyun said jokingly, but then grimacing when he remembered the catastrophe in the form of Jisung _accidentally_ decayed an entire wall in the middle of the enemy base.

“Well- I can’t disagree with that.” Johnny agreed, his laugh warm and light.

They fell into a comfortable banter after that. Taeyong still grumbling and stressing over the report, Doyoung mocked him for it, Johnny switching between taking Doyoung’s side to bully Taeyong or taking his side to bully Doyoung back, and Jaehyun just smiles innocently unbothered by the whole ordeal.

An hour later Taeyong manage to get into the half part of the second section of the report, Doyoung finished up half of the book he was reading, Johnny napping after finishing his food, and Jaehyun playing around with his mobile phone. Somewhere along the way Mark and Haechan joined them in the common room, with Mark watching Taeyong with enthusiasts – he was making a _report,_ Taeyong didn’t know which part of that is fun to watch – and Haechan silently snapping a picture of a sleeping Johnny.

“Oh, there you are!”

A new voice came from the entrance; Jungwoo and Yuta entered the common room.

“Hey bro, what’s up?” Mark cheerfully greet them, which the sniper replied with equal cheerfulness. They did their special secret handshake before giggling like a little kid together.

“Taeyong-ah, Baekhyun-hyung is searching for you,” Yuta informed the leader as he took a seat across him. Taeyong raised his brow, “Oh?”

“Yeah, we bumped into him at the office and he’s asking for you. Oh, and Doyoung, you also got summoned by Kyuhyun-hyung.” Jungwoo added, stealing a half-eaten sandwich –Jaehyun’s– from the table.

“Oh, shit- Anything relating to Kyuhyun-hyung is bad news.” Doyoung dramatically sighed, closing his book.

Taeyong whistled, “Another uncharted territory again? Wow, you sure are busy, Doie.”

The black-haired man sighed again, “Do Taeil-hyung and Renjun already aware of this?” Doyoung asked to Yuta and Jungwoo’s direction.

“Yeah, Jeno already delivered the message to them.”

“Right, then I better not making Kyuhyun-hyung wait any longer.” He said sighing again, standing up and making his way to place the book back to its place at the bookshelves on the far left part of the common room.

Taeyong stood up too, Laptop steadied on his hand, “Let’s go together. IT Department is close to S&R. Hyuck, mind waking up Johnny?”

Haechan smirked at the request. He then jabbed the sleeping man on his ribs so hard he jolted awake.

“Holy shit- You scared me!”

The still half-awake Johnny then confusedly stared at a smiling Taeyong in front of him. A couple of seconds later a laptop was suddenly being shoved into his face, Johnny clumsily accepted it, _almost_ dropping the device. “Okay sir second lieutenant Seo, please do kindly continue my report mission. Thank you.”

“What- Jaehyun is available!”

“Yeah I’m free and ready to be your boyfriend anytime, Taeyong-hyung,” Jaehyun said, sending a flying kiss and a wink toward the pink-haired leader, which the said man replied with a scoff.

“Hoo- you’re getting bold, Jung. But no thank you, you messed up the last report so I’m not gonna trust you with this.”

“Love you, hyung.”

“And I love you back. Hyuck, make sure Johnny isn’t falling asleep anytime soon, you have my permission to blast him awake. Come on, Doyoung-ah.” Taeyong said, walking to the entrance where Doyoung had waited for him.

“Roger.”

“That’s abuse of authority!”

* * *

The S&R, or else known as the Science and Research Department is one of the Military branches. Even when they are a third-party, SM has the power to place their members inside the government organization; it was one of the conditions SM demand from the government before signing the contract that tied both of them.

Taeyong navigated himself inside the facility that smells pretty much like antiseptic. He parted way with Doyoung at the main entrance as the younger needs to go to the IT department which is just at the next building. Taeyong greeted some staff he recognizes and bows his head down when he met some high-ranking officers passing by. He took an elevator that brings him to the 5th floor.

When the elevator door slides open, he was immediately greeted with a neatly arranged laboratory that has black and light grey furniture. This lab wasn’t like a general lab; it doesn’t smell heavy with chemical and antiseptic, and there’s a part inside the spacious room with a glass wall. Inside the glass room was an office with equal neatness like the rest of the lab. Taeyong gently knocked at the glass door even when the people inside it can _clearly_ see him standing outside the room.

“You called for me, Hyung?” Taeyong gently opened the transparent door.

“Oh, you’re here, Taeyong-ah.” Baekhyun turned his head away from his computer screen to greet him.

> Colonel Byun Baekhyun / 변백현 (28)
> 
> Affiliation: South Korean – SM Organization
> 
> Other occupation: Head of S&R Department
> 
> Associated Acts: Member of EXO Special Force, Captain of SuperM Special Project
> 
> Power: Light bending (Third Generation)

“Good afternoon, Captain Taeyong.” a silk voice called him and just then Taeyong realize that there’s another person inside the room; a handsome male with a pretty smile stood feet away from Baekhyun’s desk, leaning his lean body to the minimalistic bookshelf. He was mainly hidden behind some laboratory equipment so it’s really fair that Taeyong missed the man’s presence. Taeyong beamed up when he saw him.

“Good afternoon to you too, Colonel Taemin. What brings you here?”

> Colonel Lee Taemin / 이태민 (26)
> 
> Affiliation: South Korean – SM Organization
> 
> Associated Acts: Member of SHINee Elite Squad, member of SuperM Special Project
> 
> Power: -
> 
> Special Skills: Etymologist

“Baekhyun-hyung asked me to check something, so here I am,” Taemin said, gesturing toward the still-busy-Baekhyun, who was furiously typing down on his keyboard. He was printing some documents as the printer inside the room buzzed out loudly after the light user clicked the _enter_ button.

After the machine was done printing, Baekhyun pulled out the papers and scattered them across his wide table. Taemin moved from his place to stand closer to the table, just on Baekhyun’s left, curious at the documents. Taeyong took that as his clue too, he positioned himself on Baekhyun’s right, watching closely on the papers in front of him.

Taeyong recognized some of them was a scanned version of the documents he found during the raid. “What did you find, hyung?”

“This is an extraordinary discovery Yong-ah… Look at this.”

* * *

“Does anyone know why we have an advanced monthly check-up? It was supposed to take place during the 3rd week. And if my phone isn’t broken and the calendar on my shared room is the current calendar, today is only the 6th. The first week has not even passed yet!” Mark was busy picking his nails when he heard Yuta yell-asked the question, hoping someone to hear him _and_ also providing him with an answer.

It’s almost six in the morning and they are currently gathered in the medical bay, waiting for nurses to call out their name to do their routine check-up. The teleporter was seated beside Mark, swinging his legs to get rid of boredom.

“Please Yuta-hyung, you still keep the last 4 years calendar inside your room.” someone then remarked from their left. Mark chuckled as he recognized the voice immediately, and Yuta snapped his head to glare at the perpetrator; It was Haechan.

“That’s Jungwoo’s calendar. His lazy-ass didn’t throw them away.”

“Excuse me, that’s my aesthetic vintage calendar. I bought that for twenty bucks, it’s expensive.”

“You spent twenty bucks on a calendar!?”

“It’s cute!”

“Even though- You know what, forget it, I can’t understand anyway if you try to explain your cute-things-impulsive-buying. Okay, does anyone has the answer to my very first question?”

“I don’t know. Taeyong said something about the newly discovered information but he didn’t elaborate more.” A deep voice gave them the closest answer and Mark raises his head to see Johnny entered the medical bay.

“This better be something important, I skip my morning skin-care routine.” Another voice, much lighter than Johnny’s, said. Mark just then realizes the presence of Ten, walking behind Johnny. The tall and big figure of the Chicago man completely blocked his sight from the mind-controller. Ten stretched his arms out and he heard a low groan when some joints popped over the action.

Mark thought about what Ten had just said, then he let out a chuckle, “That’s your first priority? You have to look at our dearest Jaemin over there.” Mark said, using his head to point in a certain direction. The blonde turned his head toward the pointed direction and then whistled when he caught the sight of their hacker.

“Damn what’s wrong with you, kid?”

Sitting a couple of feet away from them was Jaemin, dozing off with a smiling Jeno beside him. He looked tousled; with dark circle heavy underneath his eyes, and when the younger blinked his eyes open, everyone could see his bloodshot eyes. the angry red vein dominating the white part of his eyes.

The man in question was far too gone in his tired-state that it was Jeno who answered the question, “Jaemin got recruited by Shindong-hyung to join his special team. We got some nasty malware attacking our main server in the last month, and Shindong-hyung is upgrading the wall to protect our data. They’ve been extracting tons of data and our Jaemin here lost his barely 3 hours daily sleep.”

“Oh, shit that sounds rough.”

Jaemin raised his head, then giggled, “It’s fineee- I drank three iced americanos this morning, I should’ve, _at_ _least_ , be functional today.”

A loud gasp can be heard behind Mark, but before he could turn his head to see whose gasp is that, the person stomped his way toward the hacker. “That’s unhealthy!” Doyoung nagged, with both hands on his hips.

The hacker whined tiredly when Doyoung is close enough to pull at his ear, “Without the caffeine, I will drop down dead right at this moment, mom.”

The black-haired man was about to say something in retaliate when the main door opened, and Taeyong stepped inside the medical bay with a nurse beside him.

Mark frowned when he saw the leader.

Something is _off_ ; there’s tension on the pink-haired man’s shoulders. It may be not obvious, but as one of the people who get to stay beside Taeyong for as long as he can remember (and Mark is his _first lieutenant_ goddamn it), Mark knows Taeyong’s habit and quirk by heart. He quietly eyed the others and found the elder members -specifically Taeil, Johnny, Yuta, Doyoung, and Jaehyun- also noticed the leader’s unease.

Fortunately, before Mark’s overly-paranoid-mind could drown him into a negative thought ocean, Chenle’s cheerful ‘ _Good morning, Taeyong-hyung!’_ manage to snap him back to reality. He saw the way the leader gave Chenle a small smile, the tension on his shoulder decreased.

“Um, so… On our last mission, we came across some precious documents regarding our power.” Taeyong started, eyes glancing toward all his group members. When he knew that he got their attention, he continues,

“The S&R department believes that they can upgrade our abilities using the newly discovered information from the documents. That is why we have an advanced check-up. The head department also indicated that starting from today, we possibly will have more than one check-up in a month as a part of their research”

“Wait, Taeyong-hyung. If we will have numerous check-ups in a month, won’t that hinder our mission?” Lucas asked loudly with his hands raised high like a middle-schooler asking a question to their teacher. Mark could see Lucas is worried about the possibility of decreasing mission for them. He silently agrees with his same-age friend, he _too_ will hate it if their mission got cut short just because of research.

It’s not Taeyong who answer his question, it was the pretty nurse beside Taeyong who did. “Don’t worry, we’ll make the schedule so it didn’t collide with any of your mission.” She reassurance with a smile.

“Exactly like she said.”

“Here’s the check-up team division, the room for your check-up already written there.” the nurse then began distributing papers to them, Mark got handed one by Haechan, and he quickly scanned the piece of paper on his hand; he’s on the third team, medical room 0920.

“Okay, now be a good boy for me and do your check-up nicely, and then you are all free to return spending the day off.”

“Yes, sir.” Said them in unison.

One by one, the members exited the hall, going to their own medical room. Mark saw Haechan got dragged around by Renjun and Jaemin; they must be on the same group, then.

He was about to follow them when he noticed that some of the members - _again,_ specifically Taeil, Johnny, Yuta, Doyoung, and Jaehyun- remain inside the hall, their expression dark and serious it makes Mark stopped dead track on his place. The leader only stared at them with an unidentified expression.

When the silence was getting too much with no sign of the leader going to speak anything sooner, Yuta loudly sighed, _defeated_.

“ _Taeyong_.”

“What is it, Yuta?” Mark winced when he heard Taeyong’s pulled voice; another sign that the leader was anxious about something.

“Talk to us.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Doyoung intervened, “Don’t give us that. You know what we mean.”

The leader was silent again.

“Taeyong-hyung, something happened, right?” Mark worriedly asked and there’s visible hesitation on Taeyong’s face. Mark knows he plays dirty by pressing the leader like this, knowing Taeyong has an obvious soft spot for him.

“…”

“Tell us what’s bothering you, Taeyong,” Johnny spoke up too, his tone soft and _worried_ , there's desperation inside his sentences too.

Taeyong openly sighed this time. “I can’t tell you, yet. Not here. Not now, at least. Do your check-up first then come meet me at my office. I promise I’ll tell you there.”

They looked doubtful at first, but their leader is a man of his words, so they cling to his promise and nodded. They warily left the hall, not without throwing worried glance toward the leader, until it was only Mark left, still rooted to the ground.

Taeyong let out another tired sigh, looking directly to Mark’s eyes now. Taeyong stares at him. Mark stares back.

After knowing Taeyong for so many years, Mark could say that they somehow establish a deep, internal connection, somehow like telepathy but not likes Taeil’s ability. In that short span of eye contact, Mark could translate the gaze the leader gave him as,

_I’m fine, Markie. I will explain everything later._

Knowing Taeyong, he has this tendency to suffer alone in dark, not letting anyone share some of his burdens. The members have this agenda to make him less stressed, by always confronting the said leader when there is something obviously wrong. The one with the highest chance of success of making Taeyong talk about his worry and fear is Doyoung, and second is Mark. His ability to read the leader just from his eyes does its favor.

Mark saw no lie in his eye so Mark trusts him. _He always do_.

So he nodded, left the hall, went to his medical room, and tried his best not to get distracted from his routine check-up.

* * *

Turns out Mark failed so miserably at his goal of not getting distracted during the routine. He barely able to remember the process, well the routine by now is muscle memory for them, but he _did_ notice that there were new procedures during the check-up, the _research_ , apparently.

He refused Lucas’s offer to play basketball with him when he was done with the check-up, making his way to Taeyong’s office. Even before entering the room, he could already sense the tension. He knocked softly on the wooden door, opened it, and saw that the rest were already inside, and _yeah_ they are inside a really jittering quietness.

“What’s going on, hyung?” Mark asked as he eyed the tension inside the room. He didn’t like it, not a single bit.

Taeyong was silent, and the others were silent because Taeyong was silent. The leader looked troubled, like he didn’t know how to explain what’s inside his mind properly.

“That archive… belongs to a 2nd generation.” Taeyong finally said under his breath.

The leader whispered the answer and Mark almost missed that. What he didn’t miss was the sharp inhale from the older men around him. In the corner of his eyes, Mark could see the way Johnny’s shoulder straighten up, Jaehyun’s breath hitched, Doyoung and Yuta’s body stiffen, and Taeil’s eyes flashing worries.

“What- second-generation like… those _second generation_?” Taeil slowly asked, as if trying to make sure he heard that right.

“Yeah, even Baekhyun-hyung is surprised to see them. But the characters... the signs… there’s no mistaking it, they are from the 2nd generation…” Taeyong dejectedly answered, using one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“ _Damn_.” Yuta cursed softly and Mark is confused right now.

“Wait I don’t understand, why is it a big deal if it’s from the second generation?”

Hearing his question, all the members inside the room turned their heads to him; like they are surprised to hear such a question. But then the realization came to them and Johnny let out a groan, “Oh right, Mark doesn’t know about this… they stopped the information at our group, back in the past...”

It makes the electric user even more confused, “Wait _,_ who stopped what information- _what did I miss?”_ He asked, more to himself.

Johnny sighed, “Mark, do you know about ‘ _The Anomaly’_?”

Mark tilted his head to one side, “Yes of course, and we’re currently the fourth generation, right? But what’s so special about the second generation?”

“That’s correct. Baekhyun-hyung, Jongin-hyung, and all EXO-hyungs are the third.” Taeyong said, eyes still closed tiredly. “But what you didn’t know is that… actually, the third and fourth generation is _born_ or _awaken_ because of the second generation.”

It took Mark a moment to process what the pink-haired leader had just said. “Okay, _what_?”

“I bet this is the first time you hear about this, right. It’s because the government wanted to hide this piece of information from the younger generation.” Doyoung added, “But the truth is, everything went wrong since the second generation. The war was really bad around that time so they tried to develop new kind of weapon, while the second-generation people bestowed with the knowledge and gift to understand nature more than a normal human can.”

Taeil nodded, continuing the narration, “Not only they develop deadly weapons that can either kill you or mutated your genes… they also conducted so many human experiments… with the justification of trying to evolve human-being, while all they did was trying to make a human weapon…”

Mark winced at the last part of the explanation. Deep inside his heart, he knows why they did that; inside this dystopian situation, human _is_ desperate to find a way to survive. There’s a part of him that understands, but another part of him _also_ empathize with human right and moral, so he can only react with a weak, “That’s… despicable…”

“Yeah… but that’s not the worst part. They are so driven in finding a new weapon, that they neglecting the safety of their experimentation. There were many incidents around the laboratory; leaked gasses, careless dangerous waste disposal, radioactive radiation, and many more…. the normal citizens reside around the laboratory then got exposed to the radiation. Without them even knowing, they inhaled the polluted air, drink the contaminated water… and all of that in long-term, slowly but surely affecting their bodies.”

Something about that didn’t sit well with Mark. Something about the way Taeil hesitated to continue the explanation didn’t sit well with Mark. The eldest glanced toward Taeyong, who was eerily silent during the long story. The leader nodded, giving permission.

Mark gulped down the lump on his throat, preparing himself for whatever ugly truth that had been concealed all this time by the government.

“…The unlucky ones got sick and then die. But the lucky ones survived because their body _adapts_ to the chemical and radiation… but if two adapted persons then get married, with each of them carrying the mutated genes, or if the body adapting is _pregnant_ …”

Taeil trailed off the narration, letting Mark’s brain to finish it by itself. A long and weary silent hung between them and by the time Mark finally understood the extent of the situation, all color drained from his face, “Wait-“

“Yes, you are absolutely right. _Us._ The fourth-generation was then born into this world. That is also why so many of our parents didn’t live very long after giving birth to us. Most of them didn’t make it.” Doyoung bitterly said, hands gesturing to all of them.

The clairvoyance user was saying something else but Mark can’t hear him over the rush of his blood in his brain. He felt sick. All the dots connecting inside his mind; the non-existence memory of his parent, the way all of the members are orphans, the way none of them remember their own parents, all of them finally made sense.

Mark felt _sick_.

“You okay there, Mark?” Mark barely heard Jaehyun's worried question and the youngest gave a curtly nod.

“Yeah… just- give me a second.”

_Okay calm down, Mark Lee. Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale._

After a couple of successful breathing control, Mark raised his head to stare at the older members, “Then… what happened to the second generation?”

Taeyong stood up from his chair, “Some of them die because of their careless experimentation. Some of them got hunted by world security because of their dangerous mind. The world order operated a mass hunting of them, and the news said they manage to kill most of the second generation. That’s why we are all surprised that our enemy manages to found a survivor _and_ to work under them.”

Yuta _tsk_ ed out loud, “What country is it, Chinese? Russian? Or is it the states?”

Taeyong didn’t answer him at first, pacing around his office with a troubled expression. “Now this is the worst part. Some of the second-generation have its own unique sign and characteristic of their writing. That’s why Taemin-hyung was also there when we investigated this, Taemin-hyung can differentiate between each sign language and guess what we found?” Taeyong asked as he stopped in front of them again after making a full circle inside his own office, but no one answers him, because that’s basically a rhetorical question.

“The documents are written by a _Korean_.”

Well, They absolutely didn’t expect that.

“ _What!?”_

“Yeah, we already informed this to General Yunho. We have to be careful here because we didn’t know if there is – or are- fraction who wants to rebel, or if there any coup d’état in planning. Even it is regarding our country, SM is only a contracted organization, we can’t directly intervene with government matters.”

If you ask Mark what’s his feeling right now he will not be able to provide you with a clear answer. His thought is getting thrown into a coil of confusion; Apparently, their enemies have ancient evil-brain from the past war, then apparently, their enemies are actually _Korean_ , and also apparently they just faced up with a possibility of a split within their own country. Even if they live inside a chaotic world, this is still _too much_ happening at the same time.

Yeah, Mark Lee is genuinely _overwhelmed_ at the moment.

“I will not even be surprised if not so long after this we have another dangerous mission to search for another archive like this. Someone is playing with dangerous fire.”

“...This is turning out way more severe than what I’ve ever imagined…”

* * *

“It’s been ages since the last time we hang out together, hyung!” Jisung exclaimed.

Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Chenle, and Jisung were currently gathered together at the cafeteria. Them, with the addition of Jaemin, are a part of a group under NCT Special Force called ‘The Dreamies’, they got the name apparently because they entered the military world at a really young age. They train together, and the 7 of them got sent to the same mission together a lot in the past, up until Mark was promoted to first lieutenant and has to do harder and more dangerous mission.

“Now that you mention it, that’s true… Damn, I miss you guys.”

“It’s unfortunate that Jaemin is busy. First Mark-hyung with all his insane mission, now Jaemin. The group’s never complete!” Renjun sadly said.

“That reminds me… Where’s Jaemin, again?”

“Still holed up with Shindong’s team.”

“Ouch, that’s nasty.”

“Hyung, you promised me to tell the story of your time in SuperM project! That group had been in talk lately around the office.” Chenle excitedly asked, the young boy jumped into his lap, took Mark’s hands to wrap around his waist as a seatbelt would.

“Haha really? There’s nothing to tell you though, it’s just the same dangerous S-class missions...? but it’s really great to be able to work with such amazing senior as them.” Mark answered honestly, he hugged the boy, purposely jabbing his ticklish side, which elicited a high-pitched laugh from the audiokinesis.

“Did Taeyong-hyung do something cool? Did he try a new move, maybe?” Chenle asked, in between his laughter pit.

“There he goes, Taeyong-hyung’s number one fan.”

“Shut up, Lee Haechan. Not all of us have the privilege of seeing him every day! You should’ve felt grateful to be in the same team as him!”

“Well Taeyong-hyung is-“

**_‘Announcement. Calling for sir Huang Renjun, please report to IT control room immediately. Announcement. Calling for sir Huang Renjun-“_ **

****

“Eh- does anyone knows what’s that probably is?” Jeno asked them, brows furrowed. They were all got into alert mode, with Chenle jumping down from Mark’s lap, Haechan and Renjun’s expression turned serious, and Jisung nervously bit his lips.

“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling. I have to go.” Renjun said, already gathering up his things and dump them inside his sling bag.

It can be anything mundane, really. But _something_ telling Mark that this is not the case.

“Wait, lemme go with you.”

Mark and Renjun then all but ran to the IT department. When they entered the large control room, they can see the hustle-and-bustle of the busy sector. They were all busy doing something, the whole department was in turmoil. Mark spotted a mop of light blue hair in one of the glass cubicles.

“Jaemin! What’s happening?” Mark asked the hacker. Jaemin briefly acknowledged their presence before his eyes darted back to the triple monitors in front of him.

“Another attack. They fucking playing with us.”

“What’s the trouble now?” Renjun took a laptop on Jaemin’s right, eyes scanning the information presented to him.

“They realized it’s pointless attacking our server so now they are targeting the database. They manage to delete this month’s data, probably only to mock us, I fucking hate them.”

“That’s why we call you here, Renjun-ah.” They turned their heads when a new voice joined them.

> Colonel Shin Dong-hee / 신동희 (34)
> 
> Affiliation: South Korean – SM Organization
> 
> Other occupation: Head of IT Department
> 
> Associated Acts: Member of SJ Forces
> 
> Power: -
> 
> Special Skills: Cryptologist

“We always send you the copy list of documents and forms submitted during the last three months. we’re currently trying to back the documents up, but we need to know if there are important documents submitted during those three months to deducted our next move…”

“Important documents? The only documents submitted in the last three months are either regular maintenances documents, budgeting proposal to buy new materials for the factory sector, and mission submission from the government…”

Hearing Renjun’s answer, Jaemin let out a loud curse. “I fucking knew it. They trolled us.”

“Oh, and there’s one research proposal from the S&R department, they submitted it last week. They said they found something during our latest check-up routine, and they asked the board of directors for further research funding.”

This time Shindong was the one letting out a curse, “These motherfuckers pissed me off. Okay, thanks Renjun you can go now, sorry to bother your free time.”

“No problem, Shindong-hyung…”

“Oh right, sorry I missed the meet-up, Mark-hyung,” Jaemin said while his hands still furiously typing down. It’s a wonder how the keyboard can withstand that much forces without breaking down.

“It’s fine. We will do another meet-up after you teach those assholes a lesson.”

The hacker whistled, “Taeyong-hyung will not like that word.”

“Oh please, Taeyong-hyung curses almost every day.” Mark joked, even when his gut still feeling agitated with the events.

Jaemin paused, chuckled at his remark. “Touché.”

Mark wanted to laugh back at him. He really do, but the laugh he let out feels so forced. It turned out to be just another day inside IT department, really.

But a voice inside his mind _still_ telling Mark that _something is wrong._

* * *

_“We got them.”_

_“How is it?”_

_“He’s right after all. it’s out of this world… I’ve never seen this before…”_

_“The only ones with visible results are only them four?”_

_“Yes. Two of them have tiny dots at the bottom part of the test cloth, I already have them documented. But the most obvious result is the other two. Look at this. As you can see, compared to the previous two, this one has a large white spot instead of black tiny dots.”_

_“This is amazing.”_

_“If you’re saying that this is amazing, you’ll be more surprised to see the next result. Here.”_

_“Holy crap- am I seeing this right- that pink thing at the bottom… Is that crystal?”_

_“Yes. He’s not even producing dots or spots anymore, he already manifesting his power’s physical form. He crystalized the test cloth.”_

_“Wow- this is… my theory is proven true!”_

_“Indeed. I still can’t believe this.”_

_“We need to continue this project. We need them.”_

_“I already informed him. He said he has a plan in his pocket.”_

_“Good. By the way, Who are the two that have this result?”_

_“It’s Taeyong and Mark.”_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the second chapter!! Fyi the world-building for this story was INSANE. Like, I think I spent an entire month just to make the idea. I have an entire word document for the plot and guidance (in case I got lost in my own story lol). It's quite fun writing this.
> 
> ps. and don't forget to stream 100 coz that's song is a bop


	3. Chapter 03 - The Quiet Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Underneath the starry night, Taeyong and Mark just there, gazing toward the million stars above them, in comfortable silence, accompanied by each other's comforting presence.
> 
> They just there
> 
> “It’s enough for me, hyung. Being with you guys, being with you is enough for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the story progress... well it always progressing but now it starting to 'progress' for real... what does this mean? 🤭

In the middle of nowhere, a dry gust swept the dust off a broken road. The lonely whistle of mother nature sails along the surface of the severed asphalt.

Taeyong eyed the pitiful state of the town around them. All the building is charred black, scattered broken glass on the dusty road, collapsed building, wall tore apart with steel reinforcement protruding here and there. It's really a sad sight to see.

He was currently on a B inspection mission with Mark, Jungwoo, Haechan, Kun, Hendery, and Lucas. The central government received a report of a small village at the far edge of Mokpo city was being attacked by an unknown party. The village is located at a hillside, surrounded by mountains and wildwood. Maybe because of the distance, or the fact that the village is located at an almost secluded place, but they received the report far too late; a team was dispatched right away after the report came in, but when the team arrived, the said area was already in ruin. Local police stated that besides the obvious bomb attack, there were also unknown gasses and mysterious heat during the attack. Fearing the safety of the citizens, they evacuated the whole area, leaving the small village deserted.

Taeyong picked up a small, abandoned tiger doll keychain from the broken pavement in front of a nearby burnt house; it was tiny, but surprisingly undamaged. His eyes turned sad at the thought of whoever the owner of the said toy must have dropped it during the panic.

“Taeyong-hyung.”

The leader turned his head toward the caller, “What is it, Mark?”

“Hendery found something,” Mark informed the older man.

Taeyong nodded, pocketing the small doll inside his vest pocket, before following Mark to a different end of the village. He saw the others were standing in front of a dying tree; it was burnt so badly. Taeyong saw the way Hendery's eyes focused solely on the burned trunks.

“What did you find?” Taeyong asked out loud when he was inside their hearing range. The nature speaker was so fixated in his conversation with the plants that he only recognizes the question when Taeyong stood beside him.

“The attack happened at dawn, before the sunrise. It said that the attacker was a troop of white-uniformed people. They not only attack, but they conducted some sort of experiment toward the whole city.”

Taeyong hummed at the piece of information, he leaned his head toward Kun who was standing on his left. “New weapon testing?” he whispered.

The werewolf solemnly nodded, agreeing with him. “Sounds like it.”

Taeyong sighed, “They never learn, didn’t they?”

They let Hendery talk more with the nature around them, hoping to get more information about the case. Taeyong then eyed the cloudy sky above his head, seeing Lucas flying on the west, before speaking to his radio. “Lucas, anything from up there?”

_“Negative. There’s nothing suspicious from bird-eye.”_

“Round the area one more time, expand the perimeter for three miles, if it’s clean, ground down.”

_“Roger that.”_

After inspecting the town for more than 3 hours, they decided to close the investigation, already gathered up an abundance of information. Haechan said he did sense an anomaly turbulent heat around the area. He can’t fully control them, which means the heat was mixed with another energy. This supports Kun’s and Taeyong’s speculation about new weapon testing. Jungwoo also found toxic compounds in the air. It’s not deadly, but dangerous nonetheless.

They wrapped up the investigation and went back to their temporary base just after the sun had set, the sky was starting to darken. Kun then made the report to be sent to the HQ while the others were preparing to rest. They got a 'clear' from the executives; They can return on the next day.

* * *

Later on that night, Taeyong was sorting up his belongings inside his shared bedroom when Haechan called him from the living room, “Taeyong-hyung, incoming call from HQ!”

“Pick it up, Hyuckie! I’ll be with you in a minute!”

Taeyong heard Haechan’s loud and excited _‘Taeil-hyung!’_ and he speeds up his tidying. After folding some spare clothes and putting the used uniform inside a storage bag, he quickly zipped his bags up and proceed to make his way to the living room where the others were currently in.

Haechan already connected the call to the projector so the moment Taeyong stepped inside the wooden-floored room, Taeil face was literally all over the empty wall of the living room. Lucas spotted his arrival and beamed up excitedly “Hyung! We got another mission!”

Taeyong looked toward the projection, addressing the statement, “Really?”

Taeil gave him a tired smile, _“I’m afraid yes, yong. Just got the submitted application this morning. It’s from the central government itself, specifically requesting you, Mark, Ten, and Lucas.”_

The leader quirked an eyebrow, _that’s a peculiar request_.

Well, it's actually not that unusual for requesting specific members/groups for a mission; SM is one of the biggest mercenary groups in South Korean with so many well-known squads. Taeyong didn't want to admit it, but they are _famous._ And in this corrupted and broken world, everything is possible. There was one time when Jaehyun and Lucas were specifically requested for a mission, only for them to _search_ for a _goddamn_ missing ring, just because the daughter of a really important people got a huge crush of them. Well, they _are_ a mercenary group and the pay was _really_ good so they can't really complain, but it's still unsettling that some people could use their wealth for something so _trivial_ when somewhere just outside their luxurious house, someone could be starving to death.

Taeyong shrugged the thought away. He focused on the current mission, this is probably the same case; they somehow piqued the interest of someone important. “Level?”

_“S Mission."_

Taeyong visibly relaxed when he heard the level of the said mission. It just prove his assumption to be wrong; he was thinking he has to babysit a spoiled, pompous son or daughter of a conglomerate. 

_"Recon with possibility of engage. Yeosu city. The central military spotted some construction similar to those from our latest SS+ mission. No further explanation and memos besides that it's highly risky. Pretty much still uncharted,”_ Taeil continued.

 _The mission goes from 0 to 100 real quick,_ Taeyong thought. "You know it’s against the protocol to send just 4 people for recon-to-engage mission above A+, we need more people. It’s _uncharted territory_.”

_“Of course, the board executives already discussed the additional member for this mission.”_

“Oh, I hope it’s me.” A bright voice chirped out from behind him. Taeyong didn’t need to turn his head to know that Haechan must be using his puppy eyes to the elder on the other side of the line. Taeil chuckled at his antics,

_“I’m afraid not this time, Hyuckie. The upper decided that Johnny, Jaehyun, and Yuta will be added to the group.”_

Taeyong _humm_ -ed as he tapped his right foot, contemplating the possible strategy and plan for the team arrangement, “I was thinking about Jaemin and Jeno, but those three are a good choice too. When do we depart?”

_“After this mission, actually. The three of you are ordered to part in Gwangju, where the three additional members will be waiting.”_

“Aww man, the new mission is fun but I thought we will return home together,” Lucas whined, wings muscles retracted, feeling sad, as he throws his weight toward the large cushion pillow on his back. Unbeknownst to him, Hendery sneakily removed the said cushion so the winged man ended up tumbling over the sofa. Hendery, Mark, and Haechan both tried to sniffle their laugh, with Lucas cursing on the floor and Kun looking pretty much stressed.

Taeyong sighed, turning his head back toward the screen. “Roger that. The supply will be with them, I assume?”

Taeil _did_ laugh, watching the whole ordeal, _“Yes. Johnny will personally handle that.”_

“That’s great to hear but please deliver to him that we don’t need machine guns for a recon mission. What’s the team name for this operation?”

_“Phoenix. You will go under the name of Phoenix.”_

* * *

That night, Taeyong couldn’t sleep.

No matter how many times he repositioned himself under the blanket and tossing his body around, he can’t sleep. No matter how many sheep he counts inside his mind, sleep just didn’t take him away. Taeyong huffed out loud, kicking the blanket away. He glanced toward his sleeping group; everyone was still fast asleep. Not wanting to wake any of them up, the leader tiptoed his way out of their shared bedroom, stepping outside the base and let his feet guide him.

The night was nice; it's a bit chilly and Taeyong shivered a bit when the cold air hit his skin. The wind blows softly, making the grass dance happily. It was dark outside -since the village is _empty-_ save from the dim lighting from their small base. But without the light pollution, the night sky can be seen crystal clear; the glittery stars scattered on the vast night sky help relaxing Taeyong’s mind and before he knows it, Taeyong entered the forest behind their base.

The forest wasn’t exactly dark. There were mutated mushrooms which emitted dim light in various color here and there, creating a path to walk on. Some of the flowers Taeyong didn’t even know the name of were also glowing a soft white, gold, and silver. The leader even encountered eastern fireflies, beautiful green fireflies with green-lime light, which is rare in this season. He hummed an old children song happily as he dives deeper inside the forest without exact destination inside his head.

He found himself at a rocky cliff that shows him the ethereal night scenery. The stars glowing softly, like splatters of colorful ink on a dark sky canvas.

It was _really_ beautiful, It took Taeyong’s breath away. He then sat down on a large rock, admiring the beautiful views presented before him.

Taeyong didn’t know how long he sat there, doing absolutely nothing other than staring blankly at the horizon. He didn’t think about anything, at that moment, he didn’t _care_ about anything.

“Taeyong-hyung?”

Taeyong let out a tiny yelp, startled by a voice coming from behind him. He was so out of it he didn’t hear the other man’s approach. As a _captain_ of NCT Special Forces, he should have feeling ashamed of his imprudence, and maybe also has his title revoked.

“You surprised me- I didn’t hear you coming.”

Mark chuckled at the unusual reaction. “Think I up my game in stealth?” the younger teased with a smug grin.

Taeyong gave a small laugh at that, “Keep dreaming. This will be the only time you ever caught me slipping, boy.”

Mark giggled, appealed at the endearing name calling. He walked closer, now standing only slightly behind the still seated leader, just on his right. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night, hyung?”

“Can’t sleep.” Taeyong simply answered, eyes returning to the far horizon. “What about you, though?”

“Woke up to take quick water. Notice your bed is empty.”

“Then how come you know I’m here?”

Mark shrugged, “I don’t know. There’s this pink aura leading me here, I know it was you.”

Taeyong looked at him skeptically, “This again with the ‘pink aura’ thing. You always say that I emitted this ‘pink aura’. Are you sure you’re not only making that up? The other kids can’t see nor sense them. Even Doyoung and Hendery couldn't when they were supposed to be able to _see_ or _sense_ the nature itself.”

Mark let out another warm giggle, “I don’t really know myself, but I’m not kidding. It just… there. And it’s from you.” 

Taeyong let out a defeated, tired laugh, knowing it’s pointless trying to argue with the younger. “I can’t understand you,” he said endearingly. 

They then just _there_.

Underneath the starry night, Taeyong and Mark just there, gazing toward the million stars above them, in comfortable silence, accompanied by each other's comforting presence.

They just _there_.

Somewhere along the way, Mark caught a movement from Taeyong’s hand. He spotted the leader was taking out something from his pants pocket; it was a tiger keychain. He remembered seeing Taeyong picking it up during the inspection.

Mark watched the leader played with the said keychain for a couple of times before stealing a quick glance to the quiet Taeyong, and his eyes caught a sad and solemn expression on the leader’s face. His eyes were focused at nothing in particular, but he looks thoughtful.

_"_ Hey, Mark _… have you ever hate your own power?”_

Mark choked on his own spit when he heard the question. He coughed a few times before quickly turned his head toward the still serene leader as if he didn’t just blurt out the most unpredictable question Mark ever heard. He actually wasn’t even sure he heard him right, so he croaked out, _“What?”_

Taeyong dangled the keychain in front of his own face, inspecting the dolls absentmindedly. “This power. _Our_ power. The thing that makes us different from the other. Have you ever… hate the fact that you’re special?”

Mark was dumbfounded.

He never thought about the answer to that question, _hell_ , he never _thought_ about the said topic in the first place. So, it’s not a surprise that he was unable to give the leader an answer, only standing still on his spot with his mouth gaping open, _speechless_.

Taeyong chuckled at his bewildered state. He let the silence linger for a couple minutes more before he said again.

“Because _I_ do. I hate my power.”

Taeyong said it, more to the doll rather than to Mark, with a smile on his face, which only baffled Mark _even more_. The only thoughts appearing on his mind when he heard the older man’s statement was _Taeyong hates his power? Why?_

“I was 5 when I first found out about my power. I levitated my toy blocks; it shocked the hell out of my caretaker. I was 6 when my parents died protecting me from a kidnap attempt. They got shot several times in their back, while they were busy hugging me, trying to protect me from the group who was targeting my power. The moment they shot my parents, something inside me just _snapped._ ”

Taeyong narrated, telling the story as if he was talking to the tiny doll. The leader then heaved a long sighed. “I was 6 when I first… killed someone.”

This is the first time Mark ever hear Taeyong’s past story. He knows it’s a sensitive topic for all of them; because he knows that they all have really bad - _if not traumatic_ \- childhood. Mark himself only knew about Johhny and Haechan’s backstory. The rest were either prefer not to talk about it, or too scared to talk about it. Mark always assumed that Taeyong was the first option.

“My parents got killed because of my power. _I_ killed someone because of my power.”

Mark gulped down the lump on his throat. He knows that Taeyong is really gifted, that his power is really strong, but the fact that the leader’s power was already strong enough to kill people when he was just a child and only one year after the said power being found out somehow sent a shiver down his spine.

“After that, I live in the run. Deserted by people I used to know. Feared by people I don’t even know. All because of this anomaly that I have. I hate my power. So much.”

Something about that sentence stung Mark harder than it was supposed to be. Maybe it's because he can fully sympathize with what the elder had just said. or maybe because deep inside his own dark memory, a terrifyingly similar occurrence happened to him too.

Deserted _, rejected,_ by people he used to know.

Feared _, hated,_ by people he didn’t even know.

Mark tried to control his breathing before he fell into another paranoid thought pit. See, this is why this topic was sensitive. It was for a reason; they _-Mark included-_ could react varyingly and differently towards it. That’s why there’s an unspoken rule about not talking about their background unless the said person is the one who opens up by themselves.

“It’s sad to think that you, and the other boys, especially the dreamies, had to learn how to wield a weapon at such a young age. You learned how to _kill_.” Taeyong shook his head, horrified by the sad fact he just said.

_“It’s almost frightening how easy killing is for us.”_

It’s also frightening at how true what Taeyong said; killing _is_ easy for them. Having no intention of _denying the undeniable truth_ , Mark wants to blame it on the current world situation instead. The world is in chaos. They had no other choice. They wanted and _still_ want to survive.

It was either killed, or _be killed_.

It was either destroyed, or _be destroyed_.

Life isn’t as beautiful as the morning sunrise. Peaceful life was never an option; It’s a _myth_. An urban legend. An _imagination_.

_A Dream._

“Sometimes I wonder if people like us can ever achieve happiness. _Do we even deserve it_?” Taeyong said sadly, and to be honestly honest, Mark wants to know the answer to that, too.

_Does he deserve happiness?_

Taeyong sighed again, “If only you guys didn’t join the military-”

Mark frowned at that. He got the sentimentality, he got the vulnerably, but he didn’t agree with Taeyong for this one. So, he quickly cut the older before he could finish that sentence.

“Then I will not meet you.”

His voice came out raspy and stern, with a tone that is a bit harsher than what he intended it to be. Taeyong looked genuinely surprised at his response, he raised his head to look at him in disbelief. There’s another pause hanging between them, with the wind softly blowing the leader’s pink-dyed hair. Mark stared straight into the leader’s eyes.

“If I didn’t join the merc, I won’t meet you.” He said again, with a softer tone, and slowly this time.

“Sure, our childhood is really messed up, but thanks to that we are now able to found each other, isn’t it? I’m thankful just for that.” Mark runs his hands through his hair, ruffling the dark strands, slightly frustrated at how Taeyong _really_ somehow hopes they didn’t meet.

“It’s enough for me, hyung. Being with you guys, _being with you_ is enough for me.”

There’s unreadable expression plastered on Taeyong’s handsome face; It’s not sadness, it’s not anger, but it’s not happiness either. Mark didn’t know what that expression is, but he noticed the subtle twitch on the corner of the elder’s eye, how he took a shaky breath, how he tried to hide that he bit his inner lips; Taeyong was _trying_ his best to conceal his emotion, trying to control them.

“Sorry, I just… I don’t know why these thoughts suddenly appear inside my mind. I’m worried, I guess. I’m worried about you, and the other boys too.”

And Mark understands. He understands very well where all of this came from; the concern, the uncertainty about the future, the tiredness, _the stress_. “You’ve been working too hard, Taeyong-hyung.”

Taeyong chuckled, “Funny to hear that from you when literally in every project and mission I’ve done, there will also be you.”

Mark was _honestly_ just realized what Taeyong had said is _true_. Taeyong must have found his face hilarious because the leader then laughed out loud. Mark’s face turned serious once again after he snapped out of his confused state. “Let’s promise each other then, hyung. You got my back, I got yours. We’ll always have each other’s back. That way you don’t have to worry anymore.”

Taeyong smiled at that, “Sounds fair to me.”

“Now let’s get back to the base. It’s freezing cold here.”

Taeyong let out another soft giggles, “Sounds good to me.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news! The /(?) Symbol changed!! Bad news, I planned this story to update every weekend but my irl job is quite hectic lately so the next update will probably be delayed, sorryyyyy ( ≧Д≦)
> 
> let just see what will happen :')


	4. Chapter 04 - The Prophecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The uneasiness is still there, and Taeyong tried his best to ignore them. But maybe, just maybe, ignoring them is a wrong thing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy I somehow managed to make the update despite my ungodly amount of job (good things is my senior in work is a really wonderful person so I barely escaped from dying out of pure stress 😂) so, I decide to just drop this today and yeet myself lmao 😬

_That day, Yangyang woke up with a start; cold sweat pooled down his temple, labor breathing, and irregular heartbeat._

* * *

“Something is off…” Taeyong murmured to himself.

The leader glanced cautiously to their surroundings; everything seems normal, it just another mission in a secluded enemy facility, but something is _off._ Taeyong could feel something bad, _something vile_ , hung heavy in the air, suffocating him.

Jaehyun looked up from his tablet, the younger was currently trying to sync their server with the enemy’s so that they can hack and _hopefully_ control the enemy’s system, “What is it, Taeyong-hyung?”

The uneasiness is still there, but Taeyong shoved it aside. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”

They grouped up in Gwangju as planned, before heading to the targeted location at the far east of Yeosu-city. The city itself was once a busy port city, but after the apocalypse situation strike, only the main city remains alive. People choose to move to a big city because living in a bigger town is pretty much more stable and safer than living in a small city.

As the report said, there is a large construction with similar characteristics with the last enemy base they raided; a large facility with boring design, three floors tall and two floors deep. Taeyong divided them to do different tasks; Lucas scouting from the sky, Ten and Mark go to the underground, Taeyong and Jaehyun on ground, while Johnny and Yuta cleared the 1st and 2nd level.

The weird thing is, they’ve encountered no enemies. _Not at all_. Like, the entire facility is completely _empty_. Which is really weird, because on the way infiltrating the base, the electricity, all the tools and security equipment were all active.

The leader saw that Jaehyun has managed to force their way into the server and the loading bar was moving, even when it's moving slower than Taeyong prefers. They were seemingly doing good, but Taeyong still feels that exact uneasiness from before, so he said to his radio, “Johnny, how's the first and second level?”

_“It’s empty yong. What’s going on?”_

Hearing Johnny’s statement makes Taeyong’s concern sky-rocketed, “Something is definitely off. Be careful while clearing the area, Johnny. Raid all you can manage. Let’s make this quick.”

_“Roger that.”_

Taeyong sighed, strapping the black radio to his vest again. He glanced toward the hydrokinesis user, who was still concentrating on his tablet. “Are we good, Jae?”

“Give me more time. I’m not as good as Jaemin.” Jaehyun answered, forcing out a laugh over admitting his inferiority compared to the young hacker. Jaehyun originally wanted to make another light joke but then he saw the leader's expression.

“Get all data you can. This place gives me creeps.” Taeyong urged, eyes roaming to the room they were currently in. It's just a normal dark maintenance room but his instinct was still _screaming_ at him to get the hell out of that room. No, not just _this room,_ but _this place_ in general. 

Jaehyun silently nodded. His time with Taeyong taught him than to question the leader's decision, especially when the leader seems so visibly on edge like this. Even when Taeyong is a sensitive person, it's not easy to make the leader feels extremely restless.

Taeyong paced around the room once, before speaking to his ear-com, “Phoenix to HQ. You still unable to see this place, Doie?”

This is another reason why Taeyong feels so skittish on this mission.

Before they arrived at the site, Doyoung informed them that he _can’t_ see the damn place. The clairvoyance said that he could see the area around the building, but the building itself, he couldn’t see it. Taeyong considered calling the mission off, but they are against an enemy who can counter their ability, so Taeyong concluded that this is maybe their way to counteract Doyoung’s ability. He proposed to indulge the mission while at the same time inspecting this oddity of ‘ _Clairvoyance-blocker’_ the enemy used.

_“Yeah. I can’t see you at all. The whole building is like being enveloped with a dark orb; I can’t see past them.”_

“Just like the archive from before?”

_“Yes. But this time is denser. The last one is like a blurry grey, but this time is pitch black.”_

The biggest drawback of having Doyoung’s ability blocked when doing a mission in an ' _Uncharted Territory_ ' is that they can’t use Doyoung-Taeil-Renjun combo to make the outline of the building they infiltrated on. If the eye isn’t working, then Renjun can’t see the building. If Renjun can't see the damned building, then they can get the exact outline of the place. Taeyong cursed, because this means they have to make the outline the hard way; by really exploring each area, then asking Taeil to link their vision with Renjun, and then the boy will proceed with the map.

Taeyong was about to relay the unfortunate mission -which also means additional tasks for all of them- to his team when his radio then buzzed noisily,

_“…Taeyong-hyung…’ve… -down…. -orry…”_

Taeyong frowned upon hearing the jumbled noises from his earpiece. He upped the volume even when doing that also resulting in the increase of radio noise on his earpiece. He ignored the throbbing on his ears, pressing the earpiece hard with the hope of catching the barely audible sounds. The other line was silent, save for a rustling sound, for a couple of seconds before it buzzed again.

_“…-spatch… -reful…”_

Taeyong recognized the voice. “ _Lucas_? Lucas is that you?” a grunt can be heard on the other side of the line, followed by a soft _thud,_ like something hitting a wall, and yes that’s Lucas’s rough grunt, but that only make Taeyong even more confused. The leader glanced down to his radio's screen, noticing a new set channel number; this channel was a new one, not the one they set to use during this mission, _why would Lucas set a new channel?_

_“-they… -argeting... -ark… you….”_

Something about that didn't sit right with Taeyong, so he hurriedly asked, “Lucas, I can’t hear you. The signal is disturbed. Where are you?”

But then just like that, the line cut off, leaving a confused Taeyong staring at the now silent radio. His brain tried to understand what Lucas was trying to convey, but the signal was so bad Taeyong couldn’t catch anything coherent. Something has definitely happened to Lucas. _Something bad._

“What is it?” Jaehyun paused his action, glancing worriedly to the leader.

“Lucas’s signal is disturbed. He used a new line; I don’t know why.” Taeyong forced his mind to think the best move he could make in this unexpected situation. He ordered Lucas to be on stand-by on the highest ground, to keep an eye from possible incoming from the air. _Is there any aerial attack? Does the enemy possibly come from the sky?_

Taeyong, feeling dread began compiling inside his now hyperaware brain, feeling growing anxious towards all his groupmate, especially when he sent two of them to the underground section; the area with the highest risk and danger. He quickly dialed their line radio, “Ten, Mark. How’s underground?”

And his heart clenched when all he got as a reply is another buzzing noises.

“Jaehyun, I think our radio is jammed.”

Jaehyun took a sharp inhale, finger hovering over his tablet. “Shit- the enemy is here after all. Where the hell they are hiding?”

Taeyong was quick on his feet, reloading his guns. He briefly looked over to Jaehyun's tablet; the loading bar was reaching 56% so Jaehyun didn't have to wait for that long for the process to be completed. Taeyong then accumulated an impromptu emergency tactic inside his mind, “Yeah. I have a really bad feeling about this since the start. Jae, after you got all the data, regroup with Johnny and Yuta. I have to go to Ten and Mark. They are in a really dangerous place if the enemy is indeed intending to ambush us.”

Jaehyun nodded, “Right. Be careful, Taeyong-hyung.”

* * *

_“Where- Where are they-”_

_“Yangyang, what’s wrong? Who are you looking for?”_

_“Them. Ten-ge, Taeyong-hyung, Mark-hyung, Lucas- W-where are they…”_

_“What do you mean ‘where are they’, they are a part of the Phoenix team to handle an S mission with Johnny-hyung, Yuta-hyung, and Jaehyun-hyung…”_

_“Yeah- but where are they-”_

_“Johhny-hyung and the groups departed yesterday early morning; you didn’t know? They should’ve been doing the mission right as we speak.”_

_“What-”_

_“Anyway, why are you- Yangyang? Hey wait, Yangyang!”_

* * *

Taeyong was running down the hallway, desperately trying to get to the underground level. He skipped 3 stairs at the same time, speedily but remain cautiously not to produce too much sound. His ear-com still making soft buzzing noises, and Taeyong tried to swallow the dread that has been piling up inside his gut.

On the first level of the underground section, his sensitive ears caught the sound of subtle movement from behind the turn in front of him. Taeyong halted his steps, grip tighten around the handle of his FNX 45. He can hear the person behind the wall also halted their footsteps.

 _He can hear me_ , Taeyong thought. It was either someone who has sensitive ears like him, or it could also be the enemy already knowing his movement and is waiting for him.

There’s a tense silence before both sides move, pointing their weapon at each other. Taeyong eyes widened when he saw the muzzle of his gun is pointed right to Mark’s head. The leader let out a rigged sighed, retracting his gun.

“Mark. Oh, thank god.”

Mark visibly relaxed when he saw the leader too. He also lowered his gun, “Damn hyung, you scared the hell out of me. What’s the rush?”

“Where’s Ten?” instead of answering, Taeyong straight away asked where his teammate is because Taeyong thought that Ten will be with Mark, but the mind controller was nowhere to be seen. He already know the possible answer, but he asked it out anyway.

“We split up at the second level.”

“Shit- you split up?” Taeyong groaned, massaging his temple, feeling a building headache coming up. Of course, something always _somehow_ tends to go wrong in his plan. Taeyong was sure, executing a plan 100% like the way he planned it only happens once in a blue moon. Mark confusedly nodded.

“This isn’t the time to split up-” Taeyong dejectedly said, bringing out his radio. “Ten, answer me.” his radio buzzing out the familiar noises to his earpiece.

_Of course there’s no answer._

Mark noticed something was wrong when he checked his own radio and received the same buzzing noises from the device. He looked alarmedly back to the leader, “I got in touch with Ten-hyung around 7 minutes ago. This didn't happen at that time. What’s happening?”

Taeyong didn’t answer him, continuing fiddling with the device. He moved around, trying to get the device a better signal. The buzzing then gradually reduced, until they heard a soft connected sound. “Fuck. Thank god the board channel is still connected. Phoenix to HQ. Do you copy?”

There were more intertwining noises with Mark and Taeyong eyed each other worriedly, but then the HQ replies back to them.

_“HQ copy. Taeyong-hyung we lost your signal for a brief moment there. We found so many unknown energy fields around the area. We’re afraid it’ll continue disrupting our communication signal.”_

Taeyong let out a shaky breath, “It’s already messing with our local channel. I can’t get to Lucas and Ten.”

* * *

_“It’s already messing with our local channel. I can’t get to Lucas and Ten.”_

Doyoung frowned at the information, he skimmed through the lines of codes on his screen, noticing some deviation on the formula. “We detect glitch on Lucas and Ten radio. We’ll try to restore the links.”

Doyoung didn’t have to ask for Renjun and Taeil to inspect it further, since the three of them has their minds connected since the very first. The three warrant officers are well-known for _‘operator combo’_ since their ability works best together. There were many times when their effective and efficient combination saved the lives of the groups. So in a case like this, whether one of them notices some problem, the rest are also made aware of it; they basically share the same eyes and mind.

In the corner of his eyes, Doyoung saw Renjun began typing down commands to restore the broken links. He then eyed back to the large screen showing them the satellite view of the enemy base. As mentioned before, Doyoung _can’t_ see inside, so they are forced to use the manual way to observe and monitor the executor team. But even with satellite-view and CCTV, there always be blind-spot.

Doyoung then saw Taeyong from the smaller monitor, _screen 12-4B Underground 1 st level, _he noted to himself, “How about the rest?”

_“I’m currently with Mark right now. Jaehyun, Johnny, and Yuta are on ground. “_

Doyoung then caught a glimpse of the dark-haired man just beside Taeyong. The younger got blocked from his view because of the wall but Doyoung could see Mark with him. He then quickly scanned the other smaller monitors, and manage to spot the other three. They were indeed on the ground level, currently crouching behind a large metal container; the clairvoyance saw Johnny inspecting the virtual map they got from hacking the server just a while ago. Doyoung then tried to find Ten and Lucas, eyes darting from one monitor to another.

He couldn’t find them.

Doyoung scanned over the row of screens, from the outer base CCTV to the underground, trying to find a certain winged-man and a blonde. But instead of founding them, he spotted something suspicious creeping from the deepest part of the underground level.

“Taeyong-hyung, something is wrong-”

_BANG!_

“Holy shit!” Doyoung, Taeil, and Renjun were surprised -no, _shocked_ \- when they hear the loud sound of their door being slammed open. Doyoung was about to yell to the rude visitor since there is a clear regulation of not disturbing the control room because, for Doyoung’s ability to work the fullest, they need to _not_ getting disturbed, but he stopped when he saw the person who entered; a frantic looking Yangyang, with tears streaming down his cheek and cold sweat all over his skin.

“Yangyang? What the hell-”

“A-Abort the mission…” the younger frantically said, eyes searching frightfully to the monitors. He remained still on his place even when a worried Kun and Winwin came inside right after him. They can see how his eyes widened in fear when he spotted Taeyong and Mark on the monitor. 

“ _What-_ ”

Yangyang heaved, eyes filled with dread, “Pull them back- IT’S A TRAP!”

> Name: Liu Yangyang / 刘扬扬 (20)  
> Codename: Yangyang  
> ID Number: 10110-22-101000  
> Power: Clairvoyant
> 
>   1. He can see things hidden from others and also has the ability to see the past, present and future.
>   2. He can’t control his power, his ability will active unexpectedly, by having a vision or through dream. After dreaming about a vision, he will wakes up confusedly of the current time (side effect of seeing past/future)
>   3. He always draws his vision and dreams, that’s why he usually brings a notebook and a box of crayon with him, to keep track of his vision.
> 


And it’s like the universe is mocking them right on their face; the radio signal chooses that exact moment to disconnect. A blaring noise suddenly pierced through their ear-com in high frequency, making the warrant officers wincing at the noisy sound, Renjun even had to remove his headset as the noise was hurting his ears.

“Taeyong-hyung? Taeyong-hyung!” Doyoung frantically called for the team leader over the radio. But alas, all he gets is the same buzzing noises as the reply.

Things went from worse to _worst_.

The control room then suddenly filled with deafening alarm; the room was bathed in red light. They watched in shock as all of the CCTV footage on their monitors went off, and the satellite-view also got cut off. An insulting box of “ **404: Error** ” appeared huge on their now black screen, followed by aggravating amounts of smaller error windows, popping out everywhere on their screen like a spreading virus.

“Unknown jamming signal coming from channel 2!” Renjun informed, eyes scanning the red warning alert on his screen. “They are trying to get in!”

“Shit- use the auxiliary line, cut the links!” Taeil hurriedly ordered, yelled out the command to beat over the loud alarm. Renjun quickly tried to fight the cyber attack on their server, but again, met with the same **"ERROR 404"** box.

“We can’t! It’s not responding, they got the main server-”

"Fuck- then try rounding it over! use the-"

Yangyang barely heard the rest of his friend's panic exchange over the dire situation they currently faced. He sagged to the wall behind him. He can only watch the nightmare unveiled.

_It’s too late._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... yeah :) now you know Yangyang's power 💚


	5. Chapter 05 - The Pitfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The only reason Taeyong was able to stand up without feeling like the world was tilted to one side was just pure sheer of will force.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the update took so long 😩 so many things happened in the last week and I had to take a break for a few days because everything is so hard for me 😢
> 
> But anywayyy I think I'm okay now (at least, lmao) because there's so many comfort content by the boys and also writing is one of my vents off mechanism so it actually relaxes me greatly 😌 
> 
> enjoy the update~ ✌🏻

_“Pull them back- IT’S A TRAP!”_

Mark barely heard the voice that he definitely recognized as Yangyang’s from his earpiece before a really unsettling jumbled noise filled his ear. He winced as the noise hammered his eardrum as painful as hearing Johnny’s favorite M249 machine gun.

He saw how rigid Taeyong was beside him, “Did he just say that this is a trap-”

“ _That’s absolutely correct._ ” Out of nowhere, a robotic, altered sinister voice echoing inside the spaces.

Mark quickly scanned his surroundings with alarmed eyes, a sudden trickle of presence entered his sense and suddenly he was hyper-aware of the existence behind him. His instinct kicks in and Mark barely evaded a special bullet by bending his body backward, planting his right palm on the ground, doing a backflip with the support of his right hand. He could see Taeyong’s also used his power to stop some of the bullets from hitting him. The rest of the bullets planted to the steel wall behind them.

“Fucking ambush, really?” Mark scoffed as he turned around, pointing his gun to face the enemies who manage to creeps on them. But when his brown eyes landed of the attacker, his eyes widened in surprise.

Behind them is not an enemy, at least _not a human one_.

Standing behind them is a troop of humanoids robots. There were _so many of_ them, at least more than thirty of them. All of them are the same model, white and navy robotic limbs flailing around. No, not all of them, there’s one robot who is different than the rest, it is located far behind the general model. It appeared using the same model as the rest, but it has a different color; while the rest is white and navy, this peculiar robot colored in light blue and yellow.

It also appeared that the special colored robot one is the one who’s talking to them. Mark could see the small speaker attached to the chin part of the humanoid.

_“Don’t fight back now, your two friends are safe with us. We only need the two of you to stay still-.”_

The robot didn’t manage to finish its sentences as Taeyong shoot the talking android. The leader was aiming for the tiny speaker, but the device was quickly protected by one robotic palm. Mark saw how the bullet didn’t even pierce the metallic limb.

“ _Now, that just rude.”_

Mark took a quick glance toward his leader and what he saw was a really long-forgotten expression he had ever seen in Taeyong’s handsome face; _anger._ Taeyong looks _livid_. The pink-haired leader was so _furious_ his rose gold aura was leaking from his body, especially from his eyes, and those eyes were so _so_ dark with bloodthirst; The leader’s body language was literally screamed _murder_. But the same bubbling anger also slowly but surely forming inside Mark’s consciousness when his brain fully processed what the humanoid robot just said.

_They got Lucas and Ten._

“Where are they?” Taeyong growled the question. Mark honestly shuddered as he never heard Taeyong used that kind of tone like, _ever._ His voice was so dark and rough and it also sparked some sort of fear in Mark. He gulped down a lump on his throat, forcing his attention toward the enemies in front of them.

The person behind the speaker had _the audacity_ to let out a thinking sound as if considering whether or not to answer the leader’s question.

“ _Beat me. Maybe if you come willingly, you will know where they are._ ”

“Fuck you-” Mark heard Taeyong _tsk_ -ed out loud, looking so done with the enemy. With a flick of his hand, the front row of humanoid robots was sent flying all the way toward the end of the hallway. The sound of the steel back of the robot’s collided with steel wall, producing a loud _bang_ sound.

That acted as the opening of their fight. As soon as Taeyong sent some of the robots flying, rows of robots behind them act alive, rushing toward them.

Mark tried to shoot the frontest robot but cursed when the bullet didn’t even _graze_ the steel skin.

“Bullet didn’t work on them, use your power.” Taeyong calmly said as he moved his hand in a gesture, and some of the robots float lazily in their place. Taeyong floated them as high as he can inside the limited space of the underground level, before slamming them hard to the ground, crashing their robotics heads toward the steel floor.

Some of the robots used the few seconds before getting slammed to the ground to shoot the special bullets from their muggle on their elbows to Mark. But then, a burst of electricity sparks up from the ground; a white blueish element circling Mark, blocking him from the attack.

Mark smirked at the enemy's meek attempt of hurting him. His greatest advantage was his wide attack range; he can use the electricity to attack the faraway enemy -by shooting them with lightning or electric beam- but he can also protect himself from a close enemy’s attack.

“You are ‘ _Dispatch_ ’ aren’t you?” Taeyong asked in between sandwiching two robots to each other. He side-eyed the leader _(maybe)_ robot who is still standing far from them, boringly observing the fight.

_“Ho? I found this is quite surprising that you know about us.”_

Mark frowned, this is the first time he ever hears the name of ‘ _Dispatch_ ’, but he frowned deeper at the fact that Taeyong _hid_ something from him. Well, maybe it’s confidential information, but Mark is his goddamn _first_ _lieutenant_ , they share the same authority over information, even if it’s a confidential one. If Taeyong looked at Mark right now, he probably will see the clear hurt and disappointment plastered all over Mark’s face, but Taeyong was too busy fighting the enemies to do that.

“SM already have you on the warning list. You acted not so subtle during the case with Jongin-hyung.”

Wow, that one really caught Mark off guard, _this ‘Dispatch’ thing already on SM’s warning list? Then how the fuck he didn’t know about that?_ Mark confusedly thought to himself. He was so distracted he didn’t see a steel fist coming right into his side. Mark grunted at the blow, before summoning a bolt of lightning to quickly destroy his foe.

 _“Jongin, as in Kai from EXO Special Force? Well, I might say this to you but that is quite an unpleasant memory.”_ The person behind the speaker sounds genuinely _irritated_ when he ( _or she_?) spit their senior’s name.

“You got your ass kicked by Jongin-hyung and his team, and then you went so low you eradicated an entire innocent settlement out of childish tantrum. You’re wicked.” Taeyong seethed with so much venom dripping on his tone. And just then Mark finally placed two and two pieces together; he knew about the horrific mass murder case done by a corrupt organization years before he became the first lieutenant.

_This is the same organization as that time?_

And to the two soldier's horror, the person behind the speaker then _chuckled_ , _“In our defense, that was during the time we’re first established, so maybe you could say it was our error-and-trial period.”_

“You must be out of your mind to think that killing others is just an error-and-trial, you fucking psycho.” Taeyong scoffed, sending one robot to Mark’s way, and the younger finished the enemy with a zap that ripped the robots clean in halves.

The fight seems like in Taeyong and Mark’s tide for the first minutes of the fight. But in the next minutes, the robots began moving differently, evading Mark’s strike, or when they got controlled by Taeyong’s power, the other use that as an opening to attack the esper. It’s like they are _adapting to_ Taeyong and Mark’s power and attack pattern.

Mark noticed the intelligence change of their enemies, so as a precaution move, he then enveloped himself in a light blue electric cloak, the electric spark dancing along in the air. This is one of his defense moves, as the electricity will _hopefully_ block most of the attacks that come too close to him. But when he manages to throw a brief glance to the enemy’s leader, he just _knew_ he made a grave mistake.

The robot leader only eyed the irregular fluctuation of the current blankly, but Mark swears he could see the person behind them _smirking_ when seeing his action.

And he noticed that far too late as suddenly his electric coat was being stripped away from his body; it was being absorbed into a fucking _lightning rod_ protruding from one of the robots located just behind the enemy’s leader.

The moment shock took him, Mark let another opening for his enemy to exploit.

One robot managed to get close enough with the electric-user and from its chest launcher, it shoots something that flying _fast_ to Mark. The mysterious thing then perfectly wrapped around his neck -a steel choker- and _suddenly_ , Mark was unable to summon his power. He was suddenly feeling so much pain on his neck, the pain _burnt_ into his skin.

“ _Mark_!”

Mark could hear Taeyong’s worried call of his name. He could hear it, but his brain couldn’t _proceed_ it as his brain’s primary concern is the scorching pain around his neck, _or maybe just because he was busy screaming his agony off_. Mark fell into his knees, fingers digging into the inexistent gap between the steel collar and his skin.

Swaying dangerously close to losing his consciousness, the first lieutenant felt himself slowly floating as he suddenly loses the feeling of the ground beneath his feet, before then getting carried by the wind toward Taeyong’s direction; Taeyong was using his power on him, desperately trying to get Mark - _in his vulnerability-_ closer. He could feel the warmth of the leader’s power swirling around his body. Mark cling to that familiar warmth sensation to fight the anguishing pain he felt.

“You fucker- What did you do to him!?” Taeyong growled at the enemy, unbothered by the fact that he just lost his cool.

This is new, and this is _dangerous_.

“ _It’s our newly developed weapon, Captain Lee Taeyong. A bullet that works specifically to you ‘Anomaly’ people is getting pretty boring, right? Therefore, we tried to make a weapon that could ‘nullify’ your power._ ” The enemies explained proudly, authentic arms excitedly making hand gesture as if he was presenting his masterpiece work.

Taeyong worriedly glanced down to his first lieutenant and he felt his fear increase in a worrying rate when he found the younger already passed out.

 _Misfortunes never come singly_ ; Taeyong only lets his eyes wander for a _really_ brief moment but the enemies already dive into the opportunity. Taeyong could see it from his peripheral vision, one robot opened up its elbow -just like the one attacking Mark- and _something_ , again, flew out from it. Taeyong focused his mind to stop the flying object on its trajectory

It didn’t stop.

Taeyong’s eye widened in surprise when the objects _still_ moving fast toward him. His power desperately hugging the flying object, but it just _didn’t_ stop.

‘ _A weapon that could nullify ‘The Anomaly’ power’_

Taeyong realized it was too late to evade it. So, In the span seconds before the metal hit his skin, Taeyong wrung the last ounce of his power to pulverize the wall around them, just to make a temporary barricade so that he could _hopefully_ flee. The metal then wrapped around his neck and Taeyong felt a jolt running down his spine and he lost the familiar feeling of his power. Even beneath the noise of rushing blood inside his ears and the crashing debris around them, Taeyong could hear the loud curse and order from the other side of the wall.

_“Don’t let him escape! We need to get into 5 meters radius for the collar to work!”_

Taeyong grunted, hurriedly grabbed Mark’s arm, and threw it over his neck. He hastily scanned for a possible escape route and when he found a gap between the wreck on the opposite side of the mess he just made, he quickly pulled Mark and rush into it.

_“Remember, don’t kill him! We need them alive!”_

It was a tight fit, but the leader managed to make them pass the narrow gap. The sharp point of the wreckage cut his skin and tore his leather sleeve but Taeyong paid it no mind. At the moment, there’s only one thought inside his brain.

_They have to get out of here_

Taeyong dragged his feet, his limbs feel so heavy as he has to withstand himself with the addition of Mark’s weight. The steel choker on his neck burns and it makes Taeyong dizzy. The only reason Taeyong was able to stand up without feeling like the world was tilted to one side was just pure sheer of will force. He glanced down to the unconscious Mark and he gritted his teeth, extorting every last bit of strength on his body.

_At least he has to get Mark out of here_

Taeyong didn’t know how far he made it but when he want to positively think that ‘ _they are far enough to consider it safe’_ , his steel collar hummed alive and Taeyong feels _pain he never felt before_. Taeyong groaned as he stumbled to the wall. He slid down to the floor, wincing as he feels his neck burning. Even when all the nerves inside his body is screaming in pain, he carefully lowers Mark’s limp body down until the younger was seated beside him.

Before, it was so easy to ignore the pounding pain on his skull, but now he didn’t even have the power to move his legs anymore. And the moment he fell to the floor, the headache returned with tremendous consistency.

Taeyong felt his vision blurred, and he fumbled with the radio on his vest, trembling finger hastily typed down on the keypads. He ended up setting a new channel, doing exactly what Lucas _did_. The mere seconds of the line trying to connect with his friend’s radio are _agonizing_.

“J-Johnny…” he weakly called the other when the line let out a connected sound.

_“Taeyong? Taeyong, Is that you? What happened? Where are you?”_

The metal choker hummed again and another wave of pain hit him _hard_ it tore out another hoarse grunt from the leader. Taeyong flimsily clawed at the metal around his neck. He wheezed out, “R-run… take Jae and Yuta, run.”

_“What’s going on, Yong?”_

“This mission… is a trap. They got the four of us, I’m afraid.”

_“What!? Wait-“_

“Be careful of… a private organization called ‘ _Dispatch_ ’… I believe SM is compromised, have the organization scanned, be aware of any leak… search for the rats.” the shock hit him hard and Taeyong groaned out loud.

“Run… b-before they got you too…” Taeyong’s consciousness was starting to fade. He could hear a marching footstep in the distance. _They must be here._ Taeyong turned his head weakly to the unconscious boy beside him. With a trembling hand, he strokes the back of Mark’s head, wincing again when the steel choker around his neck sent another jolt down his body.

“I’m sorry _…_ I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you…”

The pain was too much. It was getting difficult just to breathe. The last thing Taeyong saw was Mark, the boy he so desperately wants to save from this world, even if the said boy was already dancing in the face of danger far more than Taeyong could ever count, before he blacked out completely, succumbing to the pain.

“ _Taeyong? Taeyong!”_

* * *

“Taeyong? Taeyong!”

Johnny stared at his now nosily buzzing radio in disbelief. His brain couldn’t keep up with the rapidly changing circumstances; each second pass the mission keeps getting worse and worse and _worse._ He quickly searches for Jaehyun and Yuta; a reassurance that _at least_ two of his friends are _safe_ and still with him, the said two men were looking at him with confusion on their eyes.

Johnny gulped down the lump inside his throat. With a shaky breath, he informed them, “Jaehyun, Yuta. This is bad. They got Taeyong and the others. He said this mission is a trap.”

“What!?” 

“I don’t have time to explain, we-” Johnny was cut mid-sentence as his eyes caught a movement from behind Yuta and Jaehyun; something was moving _fast_ and when his brain apprehended what the moving object was, he quickly summoned his power, surging both his palms upward to form the screen barrier behind his friends. “Watch out-!”

The flying object was in fact, a robot fist, acting as a controlled missile with small jetpack on the metallic wrist. The fist collided with Johhny's barrier and it repelled back and exploded right after.

Yuta and Jaehyun were on their feet right away, with the teleporter spotting their assailant, a humanoid robot was flying above them with a missing hand. “Enemy spotted, aerial, northeast-" Yuta's eyes widened in shock when his eyes caught the sight of another troop of the same humanoid robots coming up from the direction of the underground stairs. "They are coming in pack!”

Johnny couldn't believe what they saw, the enemies were suddenly _everywhere_. He dialed the HQ line because the control team has some explaining to do because they didn't get _any_ warning about the enemies incoming. He waited for the line to connect while he shot down some of the robots who already close enough to them to be considered dangerous, and frowned when the device only produced noises that signify the line didn't connect. Johnny cursed out loud when the grave situation they are currently in was suddenly dawned on him, “Shit- I can’t contact the HQ!”

_“Drop your weapon and surrender yourself.”_ A rumbling robotic voice can be heard from the speaker of one of the humanoid robots.

The statement caught the three soldier's attention at once. Without even exchanging signal or even looking at each other, they collectively agreed that the talking robots was the culprit behind their four missing friends. 

"The fuck he just say?!" Yuta yelled out for his friends to hear him as he went head to head with one robot. The teleporter used his knife to aim for the soft part of the robot's design; the bend of the elbow, the junction of the neck, or behind the kneecaps. Yuta impaled his knife before tearing apart the cable and cord, ultimately crippling them. "Did that motherfucker just politely ask us to surrender?!"

"Better not hearing anything he says!" Johnny replied while blasting a group of robots. _The number isn't going down_. "Fuck there's so many of them. Jaehyun, sweep them clean will ya-?"

Somewhere behind him Jaehyun cursed out loud, closing his eyes as his power touch the sea surface, they are in a fucking _port city_ , water is everywhere and Jaehyun is on his forte. When his power reached the quantity of water from the ocean, he _pulled_ them into him.

The robots consecutively turned their head when their chip microphone caught a loud rumbling sound of the wave from the sea direction and the camera planted on their eyes met with the view of a _giant_ tsunami wave, towering higher and _bigger_ each second.

“ _Oh, I really forgot that you also possess a pain-in-the-ass ability. But thankfully you, as an elemental-ability holder, has a really obvious weakness.”_

Jaehyun’s eye widened as one of the robots cracked its mouth opened and from the opened lips, _a laser beam_ shoots out. The energy beam hit the water Jaehyun was controlling, and he cried out loud as the electricity run through his body.

Yes, as a water-bender, electricity is Jaehyun’s main weakness. His power act as a link toward him and the water; any water body that got controlled by Jaehyun’s power _is a part of Jaehyun’s body_. So even the water that got electrocuted isn’t touching Jaehyun directly, he still got hurt by it.

“Jaehyun!” Yuta cried out his friend’s name, catching him just before Jaehyun hit the ground. The younger man had to release his power; the water dropped down and flooded the entire field. Yuta hurriedly carried his friend to the higher ground to not getting swept by the water.

“Fucking shit- We have to get outta here!” Johnny yelled, eyes scanning the growing number of enemies around them. One wave coming from the sky, one wave emerged from the underground sector, and then one wave coming from the direction where the entrance is.

They are _completely_ surrounded.

Yuta closed his eyes, searching for his markings. “They erased my mark at the entrance, they found the one at our first meeting point, the second- the third-” He listed, getting more and more agitated when he found no trance of his _carefully_ spread out marking around the city.

_They are gone._

Yuta frowned, digging deep inside his virtual marking maps. He kept searching and searching and _searching_ until there’s one glint of hope shining dimly far from them. “There’s one left, at the station in Jonghwa-dong,” Yuta informed Johnny, which it took him a couple of seconds before his eyes squinted.

“Yuta, no. That mark is fucking _miles_ away and you have to teleport two people with you.”

“Then what!? You gonna stay here and run out of ammunition so we can be easily captured? They even conducted electricity field all over this damned place so that Jaehyun’s water backfired to him, we don’t have a choice!” Yuta argues back, frustration heavy on his voice.

“But-”

“Just don’t let me hit the ground if I pass out the moment we arrived.”

Johnny was about to dispute more, but Yuta was quick at his feet. The Japanese man yanked Johnny by his collar as he pulled Jaehyun’s elbow, and the next thing they knew, the world swirled fast and _sickening,_ Johnny had to close his eyes or else he will vomit by the dizzying process.

The moment the nauseating sensation was gone, Johnny dared to open his eyes and see that they were, _indeed,_ at the old and worn-out bus station at a far part of Jonghwa-dong. The grip around his collar loosened as Yuta staggered on his feet. Johnny managed to catch the teleporter right after Yuta fainted due to overstraining his ability. Johnny carefully leaned the exhausted teleporter to the station's wall as his mind still trying to proceed with the fact that they are just _forced to flee._ He was so dazed by it he missed the way his ear-com was buzzing alive.

_“Copy… -nix… …Phoenix. I repeat, Phoenix. Do you copy?”_

To say that Johnny was _overjoyed_ to hear Doyoung’s voice over his ear-com, “P-Phoenix. I copy.”

“ _Shit- Johnny-hyung? Are you alright? What happened?”_

Johnny sagged down beside his two friends, “T-They got them, Doie… They got them,” he dismally informs.

_“Fuck- Okay- hang on Johnny-hyung.”_ There’s some rustling sound from the other side of the line like the mic was getting pass over to someone, then, _“This is General Jung Yunho speaking, as the emergency situation happening inside the military, I am now taking command of all the operation.”_

“Copy that. The enemy should have still inside the facility. Yuta ran out empty to get us out, Jaehyun is in pretty bad shape, but I’m good to go. We’re in hiding now. I will place them somewhere secure and then I will re-enter the enemy base again. I need reinforcement and additional supply to be sent immediately. Requesting permission to rescue the captured soldier-”

“ _Permission denied.”_

Johnny was taken aback by the response; _did he just say-_ “What-? Yunho-hyung, I still can-“

_“Second Lieutenant Seo. As the current person in command, I hereby order you to retreat immediately. Take lieutenant Jung and Sergeant Nakamoto with you and proceed to retreat.”_

Johnny’s heart clenched hearing the order, “But Yunho-hyung-! They are still-“

_“You can’t just enter the enemy base without preparation, Johnny. We can’t afford to lose you too. The condition in the main HQ is dangerous and we can’t just rashly send one of our best soldiers to attack an enemy base when we know that it’s clearly a trap.”_

“But-”

_“Retreat. Lieutenant Seo.”_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Yeah, I love pain :)) big yay for yunho-hyung cameo appearance and I believe no one saw that 'Dispatch' coming lmao 🤭🤭🤭
> 
> ps. I can't wait for "Tiger Inside" release omg omg omg


	6. Chapter 06 - The Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark didn’t know where they are. He didn’t know how long he’s been inside this pristine hell. It felt like a week, but it also felt like a month at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooooooo this is the update I managed to make in between my crazy schedule. I actually pretty like how this chapter turns out tho, even when I was rushing finishing it. I think I made a lot of typos but idk I will fix it after I re-read this chapter once again lmao.
> 
> anywayyy enjoy the update ✌🏻

_Where am I?_

_The first thing Mark noticed when he opens his eyes was the white ceiling. It was really bright and there’s this constant pressure around his neck; it was very unpleasant. He was then greeted by a woman who introduced herself as his caretaker from now on._

_“Welcome to Dispatch, Subject A02.” She said sweetly, but Mark felt sick when he heard that sweet voice talking to him. He didn’t know why._

_He can’t move his body at all on the first day of his imprisonment. Mark was confused and in pain but numb at the same time. All he remembers is that an organization called ‘Dispatch’ captured him during his last mission._

_The memory of his last mission snapped Mark’s gear on and he wanted to know where Taeyong, Ten, and Lucas. But again, Mark can’t even move his finger, so all he could do was lay on the hard and uncomfortable bed, listening to the woman explaining who they are._

_“We will be the ones who liberate the world. We will bring peace to this broken world.”_

_As if Mark will believe that bullshit._

* * *

Mark lost track of times.

He didn’t know how long he’s been inside this pristine hell. It felt like a week, but it also felt like a month at the same time since the first time he woke up inside this white room.

The only time indicator Mark aware of was when the guard or scientist entered his room, it means the new day has begun, _probably_. His daily routine was wake up, getting experimented on, forced to eat bland and foul-smelling food, getting more experimented on, then pass out inside his cell feeling drained and in pain.

The cycle repeats.

* * *

Mark didn’t know where they are.

He’s confined inside his cell, without any access to at least see the outside world. Mark almost forget how the sky looks like. The only time he didn’t have to see the cramped wall of his cell was on the way to the experimental laboratory. But even so, the architecture design of the building he’s currently confined in was terrifyingly monotone; every limited place he visited look the same, every corner he turned seems the same.

They are all white walls, white porcelain floors, steel doors. _Repeats._

* * *

Today was another day when Mark woke up feeling pain all over his body; residue from yesterday’s experiment. His eyes felt so heavy and his head throbbed. He winced when the steel door of his cell being opened loudly by a guard; his ears were especially sensitive today. He felt a sharp zap on his neck as the guards roughly pulled at his forearms to stand up.

Mark’s legs moved on auto-pilot at this point, he dragged his weight, letting the guards direct him toward what he believed was another laboratory again.

But something is different today.

Mark then moved – shoved is the correct terms– into a hallway, it looks familiar but unfamiliar at the same time; maybe he already went through this hallway, or maybe he’s not. The monotonous place and repetitious routine were slowly but surely driving Mark crazy.

But then his eyes caught the sight of a large window on his right.

_It’s a cell,_ Mark recognized. _This is a new hallway then;_ he never ever walks past another’s cell.

Mark inspected the glass; If all the cells are the same, then Mark knew that from the inside of the cell, the window is only a mirror. The scientist used a two-way mirror to ease their observation. The guards behind him seem unbothered by the fact that this is the very first time Mark is allowed to _see_ , let alone walk past, another cell. Curiosity wins out, Mark dared himself to look through the glass; Inside the cell was a man, sitting down facing away from the window on a wooden platform. His head hung low, silver hair-

_Wait, silver hair?_

Then Mark’s eyes caught the sight of the inmate’s back; It’s heavily bandaged, but there’s a really obvious huge patch of blood. It must be bleeding so heavily for the cloth to be rendered useless like that. The patch formed like it was a base of a wing-

_Wait, wings-_

Mark stopped dead on his track. His eyes widened in shock when his mind recognizing those broad and slightly tanned back.

_Lucas._

Mark's eyes couldn't help but glued to the poignant state of his friend. His breath begun accelerating and his eyes shaking. The soldier behind him clicked his tongue, shoving Mark’s unmoving body harshly, urging him to continue walking.

“Eyes ahead.”

_They cut his wings;_ Mark realized in horror.

A part of him _screamed,_ he wants to fight the guards behind him so badly and just punch the glass to get to his friend. Even when Lucas's wings are growable, his friends once said that the pain of losing his wings is _unimaginable;_ It just hurts so much.

_They clipped his wings-_

_“Move._ Subject A02.”

The tone changed and Mark snapped out of it, proceeding to give the soldier who had been shoving him around like he isn’t a human being a disgusted look. Truthfully, he really hates the soldier’s uniform -The uniform required the soldier to use a protective mask that covers the soldier’s face completely- and Mark couldn’t see their expression, so he didn’t know if all his provoking gaze and taunt works to them or not.

“Don’t try anything funny,” Warned the other and Mark can only silently curse as he was shoved away from Lucas’s cell.

Mark was busy implanting Lucas’s cell location inside his brain when they went past a group of researchers.

_Those demons in white coat_ , Mark thought to himself; his white steel choker itches so badly at their presence.

The woman scientist - _the head researcher_ \- stopped their marching, eying Mark from his head to his toe, like he was some kind of subject to inspect. Well technically they really _are_ their subject to inspect, but the way they just _dehumanize_ him is what irked Mark the most.

“Oh right, today is that time. Gentlemen, if you could bring ‘ _Subject A02_ ’ to the harvest room, please?”

Mark hissed at the statement, his inner self yelled at him to just fucking kill the woman in front of him, but he oppressed the thought because it sounds so _damn tempting_ he might want to actually try it.

That, and also the unnerving coldness of the steel around his neck brought his ability to think rationally. The woman didn’t even blink at the threatening sound he produced, which only adds more scar on his nonexistence pride. The said woman even dared to look amused, as she waved a remote in her slender hands playfully in front of Mark’s eyes, which only fueled his anger. He didn’t hear the loud ‘ _Yes, Ma’am!_ ’ from behind him before he, once again, got dragged away, this time toward a different direction.

* * *

_Where am I?_

Taeyong was sitting inside a small room, scarily close like an investigation room, with one big one-way mirror on the left side of the room. The room was dark, with only one blaring light right atop of the seat he was currently sitting on. Taeyong was strapped to the leather chair, the belt wrapped tight around both his hands, his torso, and his legs. The pressure of the leather straps went unnoticed for the leader since he was so high on whatever drugs injected to him; he barely could feel the tip of his fingers.

Someone was speaking; they are talking to ' _Subject A01'_. Taeyong feels like they are talking to him.

_Is that his name? No, it's not._

_What was his name, again? RIght, It's Taeyong. His name is Taeyong._

Taeyong grunted, his eyes throbbed. Sure he lost his sense, but he could hear the soft _click_ of buttons being pushed, and he could feel the sudden feeling of _relief_ when he was immediately wrapped in the familiar sensation of his power. One of the people around him ordered him to use his power on some wooden blocks in front of him.

He did as they told.

When they were done writing the report, they ordered him to release his power. Taeyong, _again,_ did as he told, and the researchers cooed at him for being a good boy to them, which totally went unheard for the man as he still blinking hard, trying to regain his senses. He could hear something deep inside his brain _screaming_ at him to do other things besides complying with the order from the people around him.

_Do something. It’s your chance. You can use your power_. _Do something._ It screamed at him.

But Taeyong was confused; _do what?_ _What chance?_ His mind was so jumbled he couldn’t think straight anymore.

Taeyong was so lost inside his thought he missed the sound of password being entered from the outside the metal door. Right after that the door slides open and Ten was pushed inside the room, escorted by a few armored soldiers. The short man took one quick glance toward Taeyong before he seethed in anger, the sound immediately alarmed the soldiers behind him.

“You nasty piece of shit-” he growled even when being restrained by the stronger men behind him. He looked absolutely furious, and the researchers appeared very much intimidated by the short man. They gave the soldiers a hesitant nod, and the sturdy men shoved the short man to sit in front of the pink-haired man, who still blinking his eyes absent-mindedly.

The blonde’s attention averted to the man in front of him, his eyes changed quickly from murderous to a worried one.

“Taeyong-hyung, can you hear me?” He softly called the other man.

Taeyong then tried to focus his sight on the other presence because he felt like hearing a familiar voice. In his eyes, he can visualize a blurry but gradually become familiar face.

“Is that you, Ten?” he rasped out dizzily.

“We didn’t allow any kind of communication.” One researcher said with a trembling voice. The blonde jeered at the poor man, giving him a dirty look. It’s almost funny the way they trembled in fear, Ten was sure the man was close at wetting his pants judging from how hard his legs were shaking.

“And do I look like I give a shit about what you say, asshole?” Ten scowled, rolling his eyes in disgust. He was about to mock them again but halted when the researcher took out a small device on his hand. Ten’s black choker buzzed up faintly.

“You do as we say, or the next things you know is that your head rolling off the floor, understand?” the researcher said again, more confidently this time, knowing they have the upper control of the situation. Ten then hold his glare toward the white-coated men, but then he cursed out loud, holding himself back. The researcher openly looked relieved.

All during the whole situation, Taeyong could only nod his head off - _still high in drugs_ \- while Ten silently checking his friend in concern. His frown deepened when one of the researchers turned off the collar around his neck. Ten let out a restrained sigh when he could feel the familiar warmth of his power, but his frown returned again when one scientist tapped his pen loudly to get his attention, before speaking

“ _Use your power on him_.”

Ten snapped his head, looking at the stoic man in disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me? You want me to control his mind when he’s on this state-”

“Just do it,” They boringly said.

Ten gritted his teeth in anger at the indifferent attitude, “ _No._ ”

“What?”

“I said _no_ , fucker.” Ten said again, louder this time. The tension inside the room was so thick it suffocating him. Ten hurriedly called for his ability and his power respond happily, humming in the back on his mind. The researchers threw a brief glance worriedly toward each other when they saw Ten’s eyes turned golden.

“ _Subject B01_.” They said sternly, _threateningly_ , bringing another small remote to his sight, _it’s not his remote_ since Ten’s collar was off; _it didn’t give him unpleasant feeling_. But then, the realization hit him and his pupils shake, the golden gradually dissipating.

“Try something funny and it’ll be _his_ head we blow off,” said the scientist, cocking his head toward Taeyong's direction.

Ten stopped right away, secretly gulping down the lump in his throat. He refused to look defeated in front of them, but even in his denial, he could feel the way cold sweat started to form on his temple at the way he could hear Taeyong’s steel choker producing some kind of noises that raise Ten’s anxiety tenfold.

_The dread._

_That damned fear._

The blonde then warily looked back to Taeyong. “I’m- I’m sorry, hyung…” he said apologetically as his eyes, even when they were starting to tears up, gleaming back into golden.

And then Taeyong screamed.

The pink-haired man thrashed around in his restraint, screaming his lung off. Taeyong could jump out of the chair in pain if it isn't for the leather strap holding him in place. The hoarse scream sounds so painful, but it's actually Ten who looks more pained the most by it rather than the actual voice owner.

“ _S-Stop It-_ “

Ten shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out the broken cries and scream from his friend. He was openly crying at the moment, tears streamed down his face as he couldn’t help but hear and _bare_ his friend’s suffering, which cruelly was _his own doing_. But he didn’t have a choice; If Ten refused them, Taeyong will be _dead_. He was doing him a favor; Ten tried to justified.

“ _S-Stop It- P-Please_ -” Taeyong pleaded, his eyes clenching shut, mind lost inside the illusion. It was just inside his mind but his nerve system was burning up. The pain was very much real.

He screamed again.

The people around them didn’t seem bothered by the horrid screams _at all_ , those people are unable to feel the slightest of empathy, they only write and observe and scribe down their daily tortures.

_Those demons._

Ten blocked his mind from seeing into Taeyong’s unmistakably shattered mind. The order he gave Taeyong’s mind is ‘ _Nightmare’_ and right after he drops the said order, he hides his view from the leader’s mind. He could see them, _oh he could_ , but he _refused_ to do that. Maybe it was out of respect, maybe it was the guilt, or maybe Ten is just _scared_ to see what’s inside Taeyong’s mind. Ten thought it was the least he could do to his friend, giving him some privacy because people's minds tend to remember _intimate_ memory; something so close to them.

Taeyong screamed and screamed and _screamed_ until his voice gave up.

Again, Ten didn’t know what Taeyong’s seeing. He just lured his friend’s mind to think about the said ‘Nightmare’ and after that, Taeyong’s brain did its own job by projecting whatever that _nightmare._ Ten could only hope he forced Taeyong to hallucinate about being eaten alive by a monster, or being burn to death _, or anything_ , as long as that it _physically_ hurts. Because physical pain is _much better_ than a physiological one.

But as always the universe isn't on their side. A broken wail then slipped out from Taeyong’s mouth,

“ _Mom… Dad_ …”

And Ten felt really really awful. He felt _evil_. He felt like a despicable being when he heard what his friend just said, what his friend just _plead_. He felt horrible. The broken wail made Ten felt less than dirt under his shoes, hell, he felt _worse_ than the white-coated demons around them.

The plea from his friend, voiced out in tiny and broken voice, slapped him on his face, stabbed him right on his heart, slicing his soul open. He could feel bile coming up from his stomach, dangerously making it close to his pharynx. He quickly cut off their mind connection, snapping his now brown eyes open.

Taeyong gasped loudly in front of him, toppled over, getting whiplash over the abrupt cut connection, and the researchers around them let out a disapproval noise.

“Subject B01, who ordered you to shut down the ability!?” they asked angrily, one of them fumingly slamming the clipboard to the table, the sound of the board hitting the wooden surface was so loud.

But Ten didn’t hear them.

He only breathed heavily; teary eyes fixated on Taeyong. He mumbled “I’m sorry Taeyong-hyung, I’m so sorry…” as he cries.

Taeyong didn’t even pay attention to him, heaving a shaky breath, still lost inside the residue of the illusion, but Ten repeated the sentence like a mantra, crying while asking forgiveness from the other man.

“It’s not even one minute yet, subject B01!”

“I’m sorry hyung, please forgive me… I’m so sorry…”

Outside his rambling apology, Ten felt himself getting yanked from his seat and one of the researchers said with a cold voice, “Damn it. We can’t continue the experiment with him like this.” With his blurry vision, Ten spotted one of the scientists hurriedly made his way to him -definitely about to turn his damned collar on again- and panic bubbled in his chest. His eyes quickly searched around the room and his eyes caught with the head researcher. Ten made a huge bet and activated his power shortly, eyes shone a quick golden before he felt the cold metal around his neck hummed alive again and the cold fully covered the once warmth of his power.

“What a waste of time. Bring him back to his cell.”

_Ten prayed to God his plan worked._

* * *

Taeyong was confused when his conscious returns back to him; the scientist informed him that today is the 'Harvest Day' and they will conduct a new experiment to him before that, but as he is now sitting inside the familiar harvesting room's experiment table, he tried to remember the exact early experiment, to no avail; he can't remember anything _at all_. His brain only vaguely provided him with a blurry image of Ten, but that just it. Taeyong could only assume it has something to do with messing one's mind. Maybe that's also why he didn't remember about the experiment; that must be the mind controller's doing.

To add more things inside his misery list, Taeyong was dizzy. Like, _really_ dizzy. He had this tremendous headache the moment he opens his eyes inside the harvesting room. And being the overthinking person like the man Taeyong are, the first he does was forcing his brain to think about the blank slate inside his memory, which _of course_ only worsening the pound inside his skull.

The pain seeped from his brain into all parts of his body, spreading slowly but surely through his nerve system, until all his body feels like burning inside a fire of _pain_. Taeyong can only grunt as the scientists busily secured the strapped all around his limbs, injecting all kind of harvesting tools that promises a ridiculous amount of pain and agony. even with his staggering state of mind, he could feel the dread began piling inside his guts when he heard the familiar sounds of machines being switched on; the sounds that act as an opening of the worst torture Taeyong ever felt in his entire life.

True enough, no longer than mere seconds after that, Taeyong _felt_ a rough pull on the core of his body, and then his body acted on autopilot, releasing a guttural scream of _pure_ anguish. This is like the second stream of scream he let out today. Even after numerous harvesting procedures he went through, Taeyong never got used to the feeling.

_It hurts so much_ it feels like something is forcefully pull his _soul_ out from his flesh.

Behind the experiment table the leader was bound on, a large device glowing brightly. Extending from the said devices were tubes in various diameters. Whatever inside the tube will go through numerous more devices located inside the spacious room, and at the end part of the tubes connected to a large empty capsule.

As the device shine brighter, Taeyong screamed louder. Inside the once empty capsule, a _crystal_ then began to form, beautifully coming into existence like a forming ice crystal; starting small but gradually increases in size, assembling a really beautiful crystal stone that shines dimly.

_A Rose Quartz_.

The device then hummed again. Taeyong, even when he's inside his screaming pit, recognized the barely audible sound over his hoarse scream. His mind desperately clinging hard to the noise that indicates a _pause,_ a small mercy of this hellish experiment.

When the pull receded, Taeyong heaved out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He coughed out, raw and painful, and just then he realized he'd been clawing the leather armchair it splintered and scrapped.

Behind his consciousness, he could hear the harvesting's room steel door being slide open. There is only one reason that could happen.

_Mark_

Taeyong opened his eyes with much difficulties. Oh _it hurts so bad_ but when he caught the sight of his beloved first lieutenant, all his struggle went out of the window; it didn't matter anymore. He's so happy and relieved at seeing the younger man; Mark looks the same as before their capture, albeit getting a bit skinnier, probably because the food here tastes like moldy rug. His skin also looks fairer, and it's actually an understatement since they didn't get pure sunlight _for ages._

_But It's Mark._

If Taeyong does the calculation right, that means they have been in captive for probably a week and a half at best because the harvest day is happening once every 3 days, and it's Taeyong's third time seeing Mark. It'll only for a brief moment, but Taeyong savors the brief comfort of Mark's presence deep into his soul. There are only two things that keep Taeyong into holding on, that anchored Taeyong to reality; Ten, Lucas, and Mark's presence inside this facility, and the fact - _hope-_ that their friends will come for them, that they _will_ find them.

A sudden sharp sting made Taeyong winced in pain and groaned. Today is different. yes, It usually hurts, but _not as hurts_ as today. Maybe the experiment with Ten's power took a heavy toll on Taeyong; both mentally and physically. so his body apparently can't hold the strain of the harvesting procedure. His heart had been beating erratically and Taeyong has breathing difficulty. Even when the leader's eyes are closed, he didn't miss Mark's loud gasp.

"Oh my god. Taeyong-hyung!"

Taeyong heard soft but hurried footsteps and Taeyong was aware of Mark's presence beside his experiment table even without opening his eyes. To Taeyong, Mark emitted this warm but cool aura. Just like how Mark persisted that Taeyong emitting _'pink aura'._ So when Taeyong could feel those familiar sensations on the surface of his skin, the older was trying to show a smile, hoping it will somehow reassure Mark; knowing the younger, he will get overly worried and lash out of emotion. But one movement on his face muscle sent a new wave of dizziness toward his brain, pounding loudly on his skull.

So instead of the smile he intended to show, all he managed to let out is a pained grunt and a deep frown. At this point, Taeyong was far too gone inside his misery. When he tried to open his eyes, dots of colored spots appearing in his sight and it only make his headache worse. So he closed his eyes again and hope the pain somehow disappear into nothing. He can vaguely hear Mark’s voice over the screaming pain of his brain.

“You can’t do this to him. Not with his current state.”

Mark hurriedly tell the researcher beside him when he heard Taeyong's soft whine. Mark already knows something is wrong when he entered the harvesting room; Taeyong was already looks _drained_ when the procedure hadn't even complete yet. And his worry multiplied when Taeyong gave him obvious signs of _hurting_ and that's really unusual when they are in the first part of the harvesting procedure, the pain came strong only in the third until the fifth procedure. The said research gave him no response, before switching the gear up to proceed to the next step and Mark’s eyes widened, shocked at the rough treatment; they never use this kind of approach when harvesting them, even when all of their experiment are hellish and straight-up _inhuman_ they still keep up with the fact that they need them _alive_.

"Taeyong-hyung!" Mark flinched when he heard Taeyong's yet another hoarse scream. the first thing that came to his mind was to _get Taeyong out of that cursed device_ but the guards acted fast, quickly yanked him back by his arms, holding him in place. Mark hadn't got connected to his device yet, but he could _feel_ that familiar bubble of pain on the back of his spine. another painful scream being ripped out from Taeyong's lungs and Mark swear he could hear Taeyong's voice inside his brain.

_It hurts_.

“Just let Taeyong skip this one time! Harvest me twice in exchange, I don’t care! You’re hurting him!” Mark hissed, fighting hard against the restraining force. Mark was _afraid_. Taeyong didn't look good; the expression on the elder's face strongly indicated that today's pain was _different._ Taeyong was _hurting_. He fought the strong grips around his arms harder when the leader coughed up _blood_. The deep crimson didnt only alert Mark, but also the other researchers. But unlike Mark, they seem _thrilled_ and _curious_ about the newly found situation.

"Subject A01 is showing signs of overexertion, tune down input level into 4.5. Tell me the output."

"Output stable. The graph still following the last result."

"Note that. Raise the input by 0.5"

Mark couldn't believe what he just witnessed. Those _damned_ demons acted like this is something _exciting_ to them. "Taeyong-hyung!" Mark cursed out loud when the guards didnt budged even a bit. If only Mark could used his power, he will scorch them to ashes.

"You fail to behave properly and we will push your harvesting schedule, Subject A02." the guards said, but Mark didnt hear them. His sole attention was Taeyong, who is screaming in pain _yet again,_ and only Taeyong. They pushed more buttons and Taeyong's body began seizing.

“Stop it! Taeyong-hyung!” Mark cried, voice hoarse and raspy. He could feel tears forming in his eyes. 

The scientists around Taeyong writhing form let out an annoyed sound while looking at Mark's direction like he was a nuisance, "Why is everybody not complying today, damn it. Get him out. He's noisy."

Taeyong coughed more, drops of blood trickling down his chin as Mark was being dragged away toward the exit. His eyes never leaving the bruised up and beaten form of his leader, and he felt this _fire_ inside of him.

He was _furious._

Mark then _suddenly_ could feel the trickle of his power. He was confused, but the calling of his power felt _real_ and with that cue, the brunette was suddenly enveloped in a light blue electric cloak, the electric spark dancing along in the air. The sheer power of the electricity cutting of the restrain around his wrists and ankles, and Mark stumbled into the floor, eyes shining bright blue.

Mark didn’t know what’s happening, but behind all his anger he could hear the commotion around him.

_“Why can he use his power!?”_

_“His collar should be active! Did he build immunity to it!?”_

_“That’s impossible! This collar is perfect!”_

_“This is bad- Quick, Zap him!”_

Mark lately realized that _yes,_ he could use his power. But unfortunately, before he could even attack the guards around them, the next thing he knows, he was on the floor, body seizing by the sudden intense shock coming from his neck. Sure, Mark can control electricity, but that didn’t mean he is immune to them; he still felt pain by them. _It hurts so bad_. Like, the quantity of the shock itself was enough to detach your head from your body. Mark tried to claw at the steel choker warped tightly around his neck, but his brain couldn’t send the command as it was rendered useless by the seizure.

The group of scientists behind the damned woman then parted one group run to a seized Mark down. Mark actually wants to scoff, because the said action was pretty much unnecessary; _as if Mark could move when his whole body is electrocuted like this._

The shock stopped after that. Mark felt his consciousness started to fade away because of the whiplash effect of the shock. Fighting against the sudden tiredness, Mark saw Taeyong being transferred into a metal wheeler. The last thing he heard before blacking out completely was a cold voice of that damned woman, saying,

_“Bring him back to his cell.”_

* * *

_It works._

_I can do this._

_We can escape._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's that last part, I wonder 🤭🤭🤭 
> 
> PS. Can somebody give me advice on how to better manage my time? 😫 I have my study AND my jobs colliding into each other making a big mess and not to mention the number of assignments I have... yeah, life sucks lmao. With the exact reason, I hereby announced that the next update will probably be delayed too 🙃
> 
> Oh and I made edit just for this chapter 🤭 check it out for better imaginary ⬇️⬇️⬇️
> 
> https://twitter.com/CRenatta123/status/1304841731595141120?s=19


	7. Chapter 07 - The Escape (Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark got pushed into the same experiment table where Taeyong was yesterday, and if the younger man concentrates enough -and maybe with the addition of a little delusion- he could still feel the remaining warmth of the leader on the hard surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOKAYYY so here's an update!!!! A bit short for my liking but I'm !!! Doing !!! My !!! Best !!!! Read the end notes for more explanation about my current situation 😔😔😔
> 
> Anywayyyy enjoy the story 💚

Mark got used of being greeted by pain and headache the moment he opens his eyes. He groaned loudly, rolling to his side as his body ached so badly like he was getting stabbed by millions of needles. The new position didn’t help much, but Mark now was able to see clearly, unlike a couple seconds ago where the world seems like swirling water.

“What the fuck-” He grumbled to himself, blinking his eyes to chase away the remaining colored dots on his vision. After the world seems stable enough not to give him nausea, Mark was only left with a confused mind. _What happened?_ He thought confusedly to himself. He squinted his eyes to focus on the dark steel door of his cell, trying to fill in the blank slot inside his memory.

_Taeyong._

Mark gasped, jolted upward from his sleeping position. _Taeyong was hurt,_ his mind screamed at him. Mark’s breath was rapid and uneven, so he forced himself to calm down, using the breathing method Taeyong taught him in the past. He deeply inhaled, hold it for a moment before slowly exhaling them. After a couple of successful breathing exercises, he managed to even out his breathing, and Mark once again able to think clearly.

_The oddness of Taeyong's condition during the harvesting procedure yesterday._

_Taeyong was hurting._

_He was furious._

_He used his power._

Mark blinked once, twice, _thrice_ as the memory rewinding themselves inside his brain. _I used my power even with the collar_ , Mark stated inside his mind. It didn’t make any sense; how in the hell he could use his power?

 _Did the collar malfunction_? It was highly possible - _what other explanation is there, actually_ \- and Mark was damn _tempted_ to try it out _._ He glanced toward the CCTV on each corner of his cell, licked his suddenly dry lips, and experimentally tugged at his power.

 _It didn’t answer him_ , of course. Mark clicked his tongue, annoyed.

He called for his power again and now the sparks responded to him, but it’s _so far away_ , it’s like his power and him are separated by a thick wall. Mark silently cursed because he was completely aware that it’s actually not a wall, but just an inch thick of metal with the diameter of his neck. He frustratingly scratched at the unbudging collar wrapped around his neck, he knew it won’t do anything, but it’s good for venting of the stress a little.

Mark dozed off for what he feels like a couple of hours before his cell door was being slid open. Mark didn’t even acknowledge the presence of scientists entering his spacious cell, eyes staring blankly at the white ceiling. The scientists also didn’t fuss over the fact that Mark was mostly ignoring them. With a neutral and cold voice, one of the scientists said, “Because of the commotion yesterday, we reschedule your harvest time into today.”

Mark knows saying anything back will not change anything, so he stayed silent. He remained unresponsive even after he got roughly dragged to the harvesting room again, _no Taeyong in sight._ Mark got pushed into the same experiment table where Taeyong was yesterday, and if the younger man concentrates enough - _and maybe with the addition of a little delusion-_ he could still feel the remaining warmth of the leader on the hard surface.

Mark is so _so_ tired of everything. He felts so helpless. Taeyong’s obvious hurt painted inside his beautiful brown eyes is still fresh on his mind. Mark swore he still could hear Taeyong’s hoarse scream ringing inside his head. He didn’t even register the raspy scream he let out himself when the procedure began. All his pain went forgotten because all Mark could think is just _Taeyong_.

_Is he safe now? Did those bastards conduct more experiments on him?_

Mark heaved loudly when the pain was reduced. He absent-mindedly glanced toward the numerous tubes attached all over his body. Mark groaned, tiredly fidgeted on the experiment table before another pull deep inside his core tore another scream from him.

Behind the screaming man was the same empty capsule. But now instead of the beautiful pink crystal of rose quartz, a bright clear of _White Topaz_ begun forming inside the capsule. And behind that gigantic device was a group consisted of 4 scientists, with one of them is the woman head researcher Mark saw yesterday when he walked passes Lucas’s cell. They seem to be murmuring something Mark couldn’t hear, mainly because of his own deafening scream, but also because of the distance and their low volume voices.

* * *

“So far the harvesting is progressing smoothly, ma’am.” Informed one of the scientists, addressing the said information to the head researcher, a woman in her late 50s, who eyed the growing crystal with pure glee inside her eyes. Her age definitely showing up by the faint but obvious wrinkles on her face. But despite the wrinkles and the greying hair, she looks proper and so fit.

Her eyes gleam; She felt like reverting back to a little child who met the fairy magical princess for the first time in an amusement park.

“I can see that. You two, continue the procedure until the final step.” The head researcher pointed her blunt nails to the two second-level researchers, before signaling for the last member, a young man with thick glasses, “and you, come with me to the office for weekly report.”

“Yes ma’am!” the three subordinates said in unison as the head researcher make her way outside the harvesting room with the glasses man tailing right behind her.

They walked down the hallway quietly with the woman's loud heels footsteps echoing inside the white hallway. The head researcher’s office is located quite far from the harvesting laboratory.

One corner and then they went pass Lucas’s cell. The woman slowed down her steps, threw a caution yet interested gaze toward the growing silver wings of the captured soldier thought the two-way mirror. The said prisoner was looking at the open sky above him with sad eyes.

Every cell was customized based on the cell occupant’s ability. The power suppressant collar didn’t work on a mutant-based ability like Lucas's wings, so they opted with _removing_ the said power by _physically_ cutting his wings. The wings are basically an extra appendage for Lucas, so they are able to regrow, which only fuelling his capturer's desire of experimenting with them.

That’s also why Lucas has a high cell with an open view of the sky. When they cut his wings, they will open up the thick clear glass ceiling. Think about it as physiological torture; he basically could have just escape right then and there by flying from the open ceiling, but _he can’t_.

Mark’s cell was a typical normal cell, only made with electricity insulator material. Even with the collar fully functioning, they just can’t risk the possibility of Mark being able to use his power. The same goes with Ten’s cell, but Ten has more CCTV and security devices because of his stubborn and fierce personality.

For Taeyong, it’s a completely white cell. His was basically a white room without anything save from the bare minimum of a bed. Unlike Mark and Ten’s who still has other colors than white (the steel door, the ceramic line on the floor, the mirror, etc) Taeyong’s is _completely_ white; they use a hidden door, they didn’t install a two-way mirror, they use plain flooring, everything is only _white._

The reason behind this is because Taeyong’s mind is structured so complex, hence the powerful psychokinesis ability of his, and they wanted to _crack_ that strong mind. That’s why they choose _‘white torture’._ The same reason was also applied to why they drugged the leader so heavily when they need the man to use his power for data collecting, their highest fear was Taeyong to be able to use his power _while_ he was able to think clearly and _awake._

* * *

The two scientists arrived at the head researcher’s office after a couple minutes of walk. Inside the spacious room, the young researcher then began spreading out their one week worth of collecting data and experiments. The old woman’s dull green eyes followed the number and symbol with pure interest.

“I still can’t believe the fact that this is possible and we've been doing this for a week now.” She said, smiling proudly at the documents presented on her desk. She scrambled the papers once again with her frail-looking fingers, and her smile widening each [ **SUCCESS]** word she stumbled upon inside the reports.

Her subordinate was also smiling too, “Agree. We already know how amazing, _how potent_ the power of the 4th generation is… but of course them two is an exceptional being even from the 4th generation power holder…” said the young man, tidying up the documents once more when the head researcher was done inspecting them.

The young man then scratches his nose sheepishly, looking away from the woman in front of him before saying with a small voice, “Personally, I also still can’t believe that I am able to work under the notorious _second-generation power holder_ …”

That earned a snort from the older woman, “The second generation didn’t hold that much power themselves though, I am just a powerless old woman.”

“But if I am to be honest, I actually really surprised to found a second generation so young… not to offend you, ma’am, but if the books I’ve read provides truthful information, then you should’ve on your 70s or-”

The woman scoffed again, looking not so much offended by the said confession, “The book you read is altered by the government. They want to erase the fact that the second generation power can basically manifest randomly, there’s a possibility of a baby who is born today to manifest second-generation power-holder, we are basically just _gifted_ -in-knowledge individuals...”

The man's smile faltered, as the mood of the topic went down the hill slowly but steadily, “I actually don't understand… why the government did that?”

“Because they are corrupted. That’s why we, Dispatch, has to free the world from their grasp.” She said with serious expression, smile disappear at once. “Anyway, let’s talk about this depressing topic next time, hm? Can you give me the density number A02 crystal from today's harvest?”

The man gave her a weak smile, appreciating the change of topic. “It’s stable on 32,62%, an increase of 0,127% from the last experiment.”

“The physical manifesting is already amazing enough, but their crystal still brings the source characteristic, this is exceeding my expectation.”

“We really hit the jackpot, being able to get them, with the addition of other two unique 4th gen abilities… with this, Dispatch will advance, once again…” she trailed off, one hand softly caressing the badge on her lab coat, a small metal badge with _**'Dispatch'**_ logo embedded on it.

Dispatch is an independent, military-based group that aims to _liberate_ the world from the dark era. By liberating, they mean is _to conquer_ ; basically, they want to _conquer_ the world. This problematic group was _obsessed_ with power because more power means more dominance, _more control_. They started to act out when the third-generation power was widely spreading in the world. The appeal of _supernatural_ power is really triggering their wicked mindset.

They began developing dangerous weapons for their _conquer-the-world_ agenda, and they tested their developing weapon to a small city and village at the countryside. They already once tried to kidnap a gifted-people, but failed miserably. The gifted person they tried to kidnapped was no other than one of EXO Special Force's main offense soldiers, Kim Jongin, or better known as Kai. And you know what their failure leads to, yes, they attacked a random village out of pure frustration. But as their leader had said before, that's their _error and trial_ period.

“Speaking of which, what’s B02 status?” She asked after rearranging the stacked papers.

The subordinate flipped through some of the report documents, “We already did deep research and analysis for B02's wings. It's surprisingly really lights in material, and there are unknown special components inside it that we still need to discover.”

“What about the growth rate?”

“For the growth rate, we predict it'll fully regrow by the end of this week, then we will change the parameter and cut them again to gain more data.” The young man answered while fixing his thick glasses to be able to read the small font of the documents clearly.

The head researcher hummed in acknowledgment, before saying, “For the next experiment, reduce the anesthetic. Let’s see what will happen to the wings if we raise the pain stimulation of the owner.” She suggested while earning a small nod from her subordinate.

“Yes ma'am.”

“Now tell me about the _B01_ -” 

the old woman was about to say more, but she suddenly freezes up in her seat; shoulder tensed and body rigid. If the subordinate is acute enough, he could’ve spotted the way her green eyes went blank for a brief millisecond, color faded into a dull grey. But alas, the young scientist only looking at his superior worriedly.

“… ma'am?”

She shook her head lightly, blinking her eyes open, “I’m sorry, I blanked out for a moment there. Tell me about B01's progress.” She asked once again, flashing a smile ( _out of sudden?_ ) to him.

The man was actually quite taken aback by the subtle change of behavior, but he concluded that it has something to do with the most recent experiment and conversation. Maybe they made the head researcher experiencing a sudden mood swing. He paid it no mind, so he answered, “So far B01 has the most potential, second after A01's. It’s really unfortunate that his power isn't _manifestable_ like A01 and A02. We plan to induct a new experiment on him with the #56-AX10 proposal.”

“Right. Okay, could you take B01's remote for me? I plan to check on B01 after this.”

The subordinate blinked confusedly for a couple of seconds, couldn’t really proceed what she just asked, “-but ma'am your schedule for today is to check on A01. His condition from yesterday is actually worse than what we've calculated.”

“What- Oh okay, I will do that after I go to B01, now hurry and take B01 remote for me.” The young subordinate fidgeted on his place at the sudden urgency of her order.

“But ma'am-“

“You will immediately take B01 remote and give it to me. I receive no more argument, kid.”

The cold tone and also the glare she gave were enough to make the young scientist trembled in his seat, so he immediately nodded, not wanting to further anger her. “Y-yes ma'am.”

But unbeknownst to him, when he exited the office, as the wooden door being closed,

_The head researcher's eyes shone gold_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So 😔 first thing first I'm REALLY SORRY to update this late, it's been almost a month wow time sure fly. 
> 
> Okay, confession time. So as you already know from the previous chapter that my irl is really hectic nowadays, I'm on my sophomore year in college and some things are getting out of hands 😔 long story short, I'm getting TONS of works to do, both from my college and my job. So yeahhhh as you can see it getting hard for me to spare time to update this story 😭😭😭
> 
> Disclaimer : this story is NOT discontinued if that's what you are afraid of 🚫
> 
> Don't worry, even tho I have little-to-no time, I already have the rough draft for this story until it's end (I only need to add more dialogues and narration, y'know, things like that) so if I managed to squeeze some free time inside this hellish life of mine, I will make sure to update 😉

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are greatly welcomed!!! (because I'm so nervous writing this story, someone talk to me please 😭)


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